


Act 1: Hidden From Shadows

by Helena_Styvhals



Series: In The Light Of Fire [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Adult Reborn - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Sexual Assault, Character Based Story, Depressing Thoughts, Don't Wanna Write About 13 Year Olds, Dying Will Flames Reimagined, Female Sawada Tsunayoshi, Friendship goals, I'm going WAY off canon here, Like... SERIOUS Rewrite, Multi, No Mafia, Plot Starts 3 Years Later Than Canon, Reimagined World, Series Rewrite, The 23rd Century, future setting, just warning ya, slooooooow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-01-31 22:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 80,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21268688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helena_Styvhals/pseuds/Helena_Styvhals
Summary: Tsuna hadn't cared.She hadn't cared about her classmates for a LONG time now, but that was something to be expected. They didn't care about who she was as a person, only seeing her abilities in class, and they expect her to care about what they think about her?Yeah, that's not going to happen.If they didn't like her for who she was, she wasn't going to bother with them, it was as simple as that.She hadn't expected everything to change at the start of her first year in High School.Especially not with a bullet.Now her life is suddenly shrouded with supernatural bloodline abilities, her fellow teenagers finally looking at her and actually seeing who she is as a person (too late for that) and a tall, fedora doned man that's keeping way too many things away from her.Just what has her life turned into?
Series: In The Light Of Fire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533104
Comments: 41
Kudos: 95





	1. Gnawing Sensation

**Author's Note:**

> I have already uploaded this story on Fanfiction.net (23 chapters and counting). I have decided to upload it here as I am finishing all 41 chapters of the story. I am well on my way to do so, I only have 7 chapters left but I am writing them out of order.  
The chapters I have yet to finish as I upload this is 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30 and 31. No, I did not miss 28, that one is finished.  
Of course, the first couple of chapters are going to be reworked a little as they were first written back in 2015, and my writing had evolved a bit since then.  
The reason why I am waiting to upload everything, and even after I finish them, will not upload everything in bulk, is because I have a tendency to go on abrupt Hiatuses caused by my ADD. I have recently started taking medication to try and quell that tendency but I still wanna wait so I have the time to start working on the sequel properly. That way, the wait for the continuation doesn't have to be so long.  
I do hope you people read the tags, I thought a lot about them because I feel like that is something that needs to be brought forward before your start reading.  
Anyway, if you're still here, I'm not going to keep you.  
Enjoy.

_ **April 16** _

_ **Thursday 2215**_

She was slowly making her way down the road through the maze of middle-class suburban houses, the midday sun blazing down on her tiny body in the chilly spring day, but she kept moving, her tiny hands clutched at the straps of her school-bag.

Subtly, she flinched with each slow step she took, eyebrow twitching in carefully concealed pain, a frown etched into a face half-covered by a curtain of messy golden brown bangs.

Fabricated birds sang above her head, thrilling their shrill off-tune melodies that almost tore at the insides of her ears, irritating her to no end.

Seriously, if people would go to such lengths as to recreate extinct species in laboratories, why couldn’t they make sure that they actually sounded right before releasing them? And if that was indeed impossible to accomplish, at least don’t release them whilst they still sound like (excuse to use an old expression) nails on a chalk-board, allowing them to torture the every-human with their ghastly tunes.

Finally, she reached Nr. 6 on a street whose name translated to Orchard Lane, stepping up to the front door.

She flashed the light pink crystal lotus hanging from the zipper on her bag in front of the metal plate on the door where the handle would have been. A few seconds later, the plate ejected the handle. She waited for the handle to fall into place before she slowly reached out to grab it, allowing the metal to scan her fingerprints and waited for the edges of the handle to light up green, listened for the sound of the door unlocking before she pulled the door open.

She threw the bag to the floor after the shut the door behind her, bending down slowly, flinching slightly along the way in order to reach the laces on her black mid-high leather ankle-boots, rising up to kick them off her feet before she shed the black trench-coat, letting the garment drop haphazardly to the floor as she stalked further into the house, heading straight towards the door at the end of the short hallway in front of her.

She slowly pulled the bottom of her blouse up from the top of her skirt as she reached the door, stepping into the bathroom as she lifted it up even further, allowing her teeth to bite down on the fabric as she took her place in front of the mirror.

She wasn’t even shocked at what she saw.

The side of her rib-cage was fully visible, and a large, swollen, almost black bruise now stretched out over her pale skin, pounding something fierce and looking quite horrible, but she could say with utmost seriousness, that that was not the worst her body had been covered in.

She was proud to say that she only slightly flinched as she reached out to open the mirror-cabinet, pulling out the large jar of bruising-gel and twisting off the cap with a practiced flick of the wrist that sent the lid almost flying off.

The jar was almost half-empty, and it hadn’t been bought that long ago.

She hesitated before she put her fingers into the transparent, bright blue goo.

She’s never liked this particular part in her now reluctant almost routine.

She twitched at the uncomfortable sensation of the gel reacting to the moisture and heat from her fingers, the unpleasant tingles immediately spreading out over her whole hand, making it all the more urgent in her mind to slowly press the goo coated fingers against her bruised skin.

She’s too used to doing this, she didn’t even flinch at the pressure.

Slowly, she spread the gel over the entirety of the bruise, moving her fingers with frightening ease until each spot was completely covered, moistened by the blue substance and glistening in the light of the bathroom lamp.

As soon as she was done, she washed her hands of the remainder of the goo, letting out a relieved sigh as the tingles finally released from where they weren’t needed.

She finished her task by covering the bruised area in gauze and bio-tape, securing the treatment and making sure that the goo would not be disturbed during the 12 hours needed for the gel to work its magic.

She released her blouse from between her teeth, and when she did, the faces of the people who gave her the bruise flashed through her head.

She shook her head frantically, turning on the tap to splash water into her face, taking a few breaths as she brazed her weight against the sink as she almost glared at her reflection in the mirror, hating herself for being so weak.

“Get a grip Tsuna,” she whispered into the silence of the bathroom.

* * *

The hunger was building in her stomach and Tsuna couldn’t handle it, with the kitchen so close, it was there her feet steered her as she readjusted her blouse over her torso.

She’d skipped lunch that day, not because she’d wanted to but because her lunch-box had been rendered absolutely useless after it had been stolen as she’d walked through the hallway that morning and been made to watch as it was chucked straight into the concrete wall, sending its contents flying everywhere.

And so, currently, she was running on the fumes from her small breakfast.

She walked over to the other side of the room and put her hand on the wall, pressing down a little and immediately, the wall caved in at her touch and slid aside to reveal the staircase leading down to a room cut off from the basement. Stepping down, Tsuna was soon walking through the large hidden room that now made up her mother's expansive pantry.

She slowly walked through the many over-stocked shelves, looking over tinned cans, bags of bread, jars of different types of jams, bag of flour, sugar, many other baking ingredients, dried fruits, pickled vegetables, and that was just to name a few of the things her mother had in there.

Tsuna honestly didn’t know how much stuff her mother had in there.

Eventually, she hit what she personally considered a jackpot.

At the end of a shelf, almost hidden from sight, was a surprisingly sizable stash of one-minute-meal packs, the foil wrappings glistening in the weak lighting of the basement. Her mother didn’t like those things, didn’t think they were healthy, but she bought them for the many, many days Tsuna found herself alone at home when the bakery called.

Tsuna sorted through the multiple packs, looking at the colored labels. She might be hungry, but she’s surprisingly picky with her foods, not in the sense of health, but in the sense of what she craves at different times.

Right now, it was comfort food time.

Finally, she found a few red and yellow packs, turning them over to read the meal description on the back for just the meal she wanted, and soon enough, she found it.

Pack in hand, she left the pantry, pushing the tile to close the door behind her.

She threw the pack into the rehydrator, pressing the buttons necessary before she continued walking and jumped on top of the counter, her hand reaching out to the fruit-basket next to her, fingering a cluster of grapes.

She hates sitting around and doing nothing as it is then that the memories resurface.

She could usually handle twice as much treatment from her classmates, it was just that that particular day had been a particularly bad one.

She’d woken up that morning with the most annoying gnawing sensation at the back of her neck, she’d tried to ignore the sensation for the entirety of the day, but it had messed up her mood more than her classmates had been doing.

Being shoved into a concrete bench had just been the final drop in her goblet of endurance.

The sound of the rehydrator dinging snapped her out of her thought process.

Her head snapped towards the appliance, jumping off of the counter.

She shouldn’t have done that. She should have known that jumping like that was not a good idea, and she immediately regretted the action the second she landed.

As her feet touched the ground, her head was thrown into a frantic spin, sending her balance out of wack, her knees buckling under her, causing her to immediately fall face-first in the direction of the stove.

Not wanting to face-plant with hard metal, Tsuna’s arms shot out to slam her hands down on top of the sleek black surface. She managed to keep herself upright and her face away from the cold surface, silently cursing her rotten luck as she slowly forced her legs into movement, raising herself off of the tiled floor and moving her to the rehydrator.

She pulled the plate of rehydrated McDonald’s out of the appliance, immediately popping a fry into her mouth, relishing in one of her few comfort foods as she pirouetted around towards the table, balancing the plate in her hand.

She mentally patted herself on the back when she managed to make it to the table with both herself and the plate in one piece, not even one single fry had dropped, and it satisfied her more than it would have satisfied anyone else.

She still feel a dull ache in her side as she sits down at the table, but thankfully, it’s nowhere near as bad as it had been before, the gel works wonders.

She dipped another deliciously salted fry into ketchup and nibbled on it, almost moaning at the taste that filled her mouth.

The treat was not something her mother would approve of her eating, despite being the one owning a bakery filled with fattening fructose products that Tsuna had grown quite tired of eating after all these years.

Her legs crossed under the table as she thought about how her mother would react to her skipping out on half the school day.

Again.

She was never the most understanding of women.

* * *

She was turning sixteen that year.

And for whatever reason, for the past few days, she’s felt as though her relatively normal life up to this point was terribly wrong. Something was going to happen, and soon. It was the gnawing at the back of her neck, telling her that something wasn’t right. She couldn’t tell what exactly, she never did when the sensation resurfaced, but she’d learned to pay attention to those feelings.

The last time she had that sensation she was shoved down a staircase and woke up a week later in the hospital.

Hopefully, this time it didn’t get that far, and that it came quickly.

She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to handle that feeling.

With a sigh, she turned her light brown eyes back towards the canvas stationed in front of her, resting on top of her knees, resuming the movement of her slender arm guiding the tiny limb that was her right hand holding the brush.

She had different sized and colored flecks of paint splattered all over the white jumper shorts she always wore when painting, the large cotton orange T-shirt under it was left unharmed. Her messy, shoulder-length golden-brown hair had been tied up into an equally messy bun at the back of her head, she was worried she might have to cut off the elastic is she was ever going to get her hair down again.

Painting was one of the only things she could do right. One of the only things that managed to give her some kind of peace.

The thing that had caused her to pause in the first place, had been the sudden sound of a bird singing over her head.

Sure, she’d heard several birds over the course of the day, but this one was different.

Being in the 23rd century, real birds that hadn’t been born and grown in special animal restoration laboratories were a rare thing to find. The creatures developed in labs never quite sounded right, but those born in nature always did, even when the parents were lab-brown. And this bird that she heard now sounded real.

Trilling, it’s pure song from one of the lamp-post mounted onto the concrete fences splitting the properties of the large suburban district.

She’d watched the bird until it took off over the rooftops, taking its song with it.

With a final smear between the darker and lighter color of green, Tsuna allowed herself to lean back and take a look at the final result of her four hours on the porch.

This week's painting was a forest clearing, a clearing that she’d actually painted several times before in different weathers and seasons. In this painting, the tree’s greenery parted ways for the piercing rays of sunlight, allowing the bright white flowers mixed in with the grass to glow as they basked in the light’s warmth. She allowed her eyes to wander over the expertly placed shadowing.

A small smile played on her lips.

She’s always been proud of her sense of shadows.

Shadows and lighting had always been particularly easy for her, particularly live light coming from flickering flames and fires. She’d gotten comments from her art teachers through the years that whenever a painting of hers included a fire, they could almost see the fire moving, feel the heat from the canvas.

She had no idea why that clearing kept popping up, why it became a reoccurring subject in her paintings. She couldn’t remember having ever gone to a scene even remotely similar to the one she’s painting. She never went into her casual paintings knowing what she’s going to paint, she just lets it become what she finds it becoming whilst looking at it through a blurred vision.

The clearing had become more and more common for the last couple of years.

Suddenly, the familiar beeping sound rang through the house behind her, a sound to indicate that someone had just unlocked the front door.

The sound made Tsuna let out a long, exhausted sigh at the conversation she knew would soon follow. She got off of her chair, settling the painting down, letting it lean against the outside of her house before she turned towards her supplies.

A few seconds later, Sawada Nana stepped into the kitchen.

The petite middle-aged woman froze when her eyes fell on Tsuna moving around on the terrace, the river cutting through their district running peacefully behind her.

The woman adjusted the position of her bag hanging over her shoulder, letting out a long sigh. She knew, and Tsuna knew, that the woman should have expected this.

“Did you skip again?” she asked shortly.

Tsuna didn’t answer the woman, carefully putting each utensil back into the wooden briefcase in which they had their home, listening as her mother dropped her bag on the counter, the steps steadily approaching the open terrace doors.

She didn’t need to see her mother to know she was leaning against the door-frame, watching her as she wiped the paint off of her brushes.

“What happened this time?”

Tsuna doesn’t turn to her mother, answering more automatically than anything.

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Tsuna inspected her paint tubes for leakage, not wanting them to color the wood inside the case, even going so far as to have them neatly wrapped in a rag, all the while feeling her mother’s eyes drilling holes into her back.

"Tsu-chan...”

Tsuna’s hands stopped moving at the seriousness of her mother’s voice, although she still refused to turn around and actually face the woman.

“This can’t continue.”

Tsuna shook her head, her hands now moving to carefully wipe the paint off of her fingers as best she could, still not looking at the woman, trying to block her words from her mind, knowing perfectly well that there was nothing she could do about what the woman wanted.

Instead, she focused on her supplies.

“We have to do something about this!” Nana almost screamed.

Every single utensil Tsuna owned has it’s own assigned spot, not only in her briefcase but also in her room, and she always triple-checked that everything was in place before carefully shutting the lid.

She didn’t do that now.

Tsuna slammed the lid on her supply case closed, snapping the locks in place before she grabbed the handle, rising up from the floor with a graceful spin, although she still kept her gaze away from her mother.

“There’s nothing we can do.” came Tsuna’s short reply, turning towards where she’s set her painting to rest and picked it up, preparing to step past the woman back into the house and return to her bedroom.

Unfortunately, her mother knew her just a bit more than she liked.

Nana almost ran over to her daughter, putting her hands on her shoulders and forced her to turn towards her, although Tsuna still didn’t look at her mother's face.

“Of course there is something!” Nana sounded almost desperate as she gave her daughter a shake. Tsuna got the feeling that her mother was trying to force her to look at her, and she decided that she would give the woman what she wanted.

Sighing, she pushed her mother's hands away from her shoulders, finally meeting her eyes.

“What?” she asked, almost exaggeratedly.

Nana looked a little shocked at her daughter’s word, the girl almost never raised her voice, she never felt the need to do that, her voice was clear enough that it carried out over a noisy room at just a natural level.

“Tell the teachers?” Tsuna felt as though she was about to burst into laughter at her own words, shaking her head. “Mom… we’re teenagers. We don’t listen to authority.”

She ignored any other comment from her mother, closing her ears from the woman as she turned back towards the door. She felt her mother's eyes follow her even through the open door as she turned to the staircase, trailing after her as she scaled each step.

The attic door had thankfully already been standing open by the time she reached it, allowing her to ascend the remaining stairs behind it into the absolute mess that made up her sleeping quarters.

Expertly navigating over the junk-covered floor, Tsuna picked down last week's painting portraying a beautiful, glowing cityscape and replaces it with the one she’s just finished. This particular spot on the wall was something she’d designated as the “drying spot”, or simply “painting of the week”.

Once upon a time, she’d tried to put each and every one of her paintings up on the wall, but as said time passed, the number of paintings increased, until she discovered that trying to fit all of her paintings on the walls would literally cover her walls. Now, the paintings from the previous weeks were stashed at the back of her closet, the only place she could put them really as her bedroom had a severe lack of storage space.

After having fetched her art-supplies from downstairs, the young woman changed out of her paint-splattered clothing, putting them on a hanger she’d previously set out in case she’d wound up with more splatters on them, which always happened. It wouldn’t matter if the walls were splattered with paint, Tsuna was thinking about re-painting them sometime soon anyway, so it didn’t really matter to her.

With the paint-splattered article of clothing hanging on the wall as well, Tsuna changed into a pair of jeans hot-pants and a pink and white striped sweater who’s sleeves went way past her wrists, clinging to her figure in the most comfortable way possible.

Her clothing was practically the only thing in Tsuna’s bedroom aside from her art-supplies and desk stationaries that actually had a proper, designated place where she’s decided they belong, and thus… one of the few things in her bedroom that actually have some semblance of order to them.

Her floor was covered with discarded papers, books, half-filled sketch-books, make-up of different pharmacy-bought brands, jewelry, other types of accessories such as shoes, purses, hats. Not to mention the small collection of antique toys her father had bought her from overseas over the years for her birthday, Yule’s, and really whenever he wanted to as she was growing up.

Some toys he had gotten her were simply too beautiful to be put away, which the majority of the toys had been, and so, they had made their place in her bedroom as beautiful decorations that were rarely seen through the rest of the mess that covered her floor.

Thankfully, she knew where to put her feet so she wouldn’t step on them.

Her mother never once tried to step into her room because of this.

She really needs to get more storage space…

It hurts her to see her room in this state.

At the moment, however, that didn’t matter to her as she allowed herself to drop down into the soft feathery covers and pillows of her bed, the mattress immediately forming according to her lithe frame as she reached down to fish her tablet from her bag.

She breathed in the strong scent of fresh oil-paint as she unfolded the tablet, activating it as she removed the touch pen from the cover.

Her life was… to put it simply…

Boring.

She had just graduated middle-school with barely passing grades and started high-school just two weeks ago. Somehow she had gotten a strange idea that high-school was going to be different. For it to finally give some change in the lifestyle she’s had for the past almost eleven years.

A good change.

How wrong she was.

High-school was just the same, if not worse.

Where middle-school had been filled with kids sporting low self-esteem at the beginning of puberty, high-school was a gathering of hormonal carnivores that had just developed their claws and fangs, just waiting for something to sink those new aspects of them into, be it their claws, fangs, or even their private parts if they were desperate enough.

More often than not, it just so happened that that little something was Tsuna.

Not the last part though, thankfully.

She couldn’t help it, she really, physically couldn’t. No matter how many lessons she took in classical ballet, her sense of balance remained the same. Nonexistent whenever she actually paid attention to it. She could trip over practically anything, the ballet just gave her the reflexes that prevented her from falling on her nose all the time.

She also had this thing with test-taking situations where she would find herself unable to focus during times of stress. She would try to sit down and take a test and just find her brain crumbling.

She hasn’t passed a test since, ever.

She really couldn’t help it though, they had believed she could in the beginning, but thankfully that had changed after about a year, and now the teachers were also well aware of this fact.

The only reason she was able to graduate from Middle-school was that she’d passed her homework-assignments with flying colors, and the teachers had allowed her to prove her knowledge through other means than sitting down and take a test, and thank the stars, she’d managed to pass them with enough points to survive the grade.

Unfortunately, the “special treatment” she receives from the teachers in class has gotten her classmates believing that she’s being favorited by them, and got them gossiping about just how she’d gotten their “favor” in the first place.

She never bothered to correct them, they wouldn’t believe her.

Adults were the only ones that understood, or even knew that Tsuna really couldn’t help everything she was being picked on for. It truly wasn’t her fault that her brain had absolutely refused to fully develop, making it so that Tsuna’s functions completely fall apart whenever she tries to motivate herself to do something or even decide to do anything in particular.

Just the thought of calmly putting one foot in front of the other caused her to trip over thin air.

The doctors had no idea what to do about it, and so, Tsuna just had to live with it.

The mere factor that she’d managed to graduate from Middle-school was a huge step for her.

But no, she was stuck in a class filled with hormonal monsters that were all trying to make themselves feel better by trying to make her feel like something less than human, making it so that Tsuna had almost come to regret her one moment of actual good luck in life.

And so, she buried herself in her own little world of art and dance.

Had she been of the weaker structure people seemed to believe her to be, she probably would have ended her apparent suffering a long time ago, but Sawada Tsunako was not that weak. At least, she didn’t think she was.

She was her father’s daughter, and even if there were only a few traits that the two of them shared, the almost overpowering strength of will and stubbornness she’d inherited from him made it all the easier for Tsuna to power through every day that passed by, even if the man that had given her those traits in the first place wasn’t there.

The gnawing sensation was still there, and with it came the strong, very, very strong, suspicion that something serious was about to happen to her, something that would change her life completely. She hoped it would be a good one.

She would just have to suck it up and deal with her life as it was until that day finally comes.

* * *

_ **April 17** _

_ **Friday 2215** _

Tsuna woke up the next morning to the sound of her alarm-clock blaring at a medium-high volume. Its strange combines sound of rooster-cries, vibrating bells, the smashing of fragile objects and a strange melody more than likely having once being played on a xylophone-like contraption echoed around the room.

When she’d chosen the alarm that first day, she’d laughed at the ridiculousness of it, but now she just groaned in annoyance as she was slowly yanked from her peaceful world of fantasies and actually nice people.

Truly, she’d made the right choice.

She’d long since discovered that it was easier for her to wake up to the smaller sounds that the louder ones for some reason. She didn’t complain though as it worked, and she didn’t have to worry that she’s waking up the neighbors with the sound of her alarm, even though she did sometimes feel as though she did so anyhow with the shock of the sudden noise.

Leaving her hair in the usual mess it was in, Tsuna pulled on the uniform she’d just started to become used to wearing. Reaching out for the blue plaid pleated skirt instead of the gray one, the black thigh-socks instead of the white knee ones, the black button-up cardigan with golden details instead of the dark gray sweater-vest, and the blue blazer with golden edging instead of the pain yellow one. The only part of the uniform that hadn’t really changed was the plain white blouse really.

To be honest, Tsuna preferred the new uniform to the old one in an artistic sense.

She allowed her hand to run over the embroidered crest patch over the left side of her chest.

Namimori high-school.

Letting her hand drop, she didn’t bother checking her reflection in the full-body mirror standing in the corner of the room. She knew she probably looked like all the garments apart from the skirt and socks were two sizes too big for her, and her hair bearing the resemblance to a bird’s nest more than actual hair.

She had picked the size of the uniform with her overly sensitive skin and a possible future growth spurt in mind, even though that was highly unlikely and very much against her mother’s wishes, a woman who wanted nothing more than for her daughter to show off that perfect ballerina figure she’d trained so hard to obtain over the years, and now she was paying for that choice in the mocking voices of the students around her in class and in the corridors believing that she was too ashamed to show off her figure since she most likely didn’t have one.

Their words, not hers.

Sometimes, her observational skills worked against her.

Picking up her tablet from her desk and unfolding it, Tsuna went over her presentation once more. Displaying the most exotic looking pastries and bakes from her mother’s store. It was the only subject she could think about for her Social Studies assignment.

Why did they have to make a presentation on a relative’s profession when the only relatives Tsuna was aware of were her parents? Said parents absolutely refusing to talk about their own relatives, optioning to keep either side of the family an absolute secret from their daughter.

Why they did this, Tsuna had no idea.

Wandering into the kitchen, Tsuna saw her mother standing at the counter like she always did in the morning. It was almost the only time Tsuna would see her the whole day before the woman would slip away to the bakery and not be seen until the late hours at night if she didn’t get lucky like yesterday where her mother had to return to the house to fetch something.

At the moment, the woman was wearing that regular pink apron with her shoulder-long chocolate brown hair twisted up into a bun at the back of her head.

It had been jaw length three years ago, but her mother found that she hadn’t liked the look all that much, and so she had optioned to grow it out. Now, it just brushed over her shoulders. It actually looked longer than Tsuna’s did with her hair the way it was, they didn’t even know how it would look like should she actually take the time to take care of her hair.

Neither of them know how to manage ringlets.

“Morning.” Tsuna greeted her mother with a breathy voice, letting her school bag slip down her shoulder to rest it against the leg of the table before she let herself slide down into the chair.

“Looking bright, Sweetheart.” Nana greeted right back, though she sounded a bit awkward. The previous day's conversation still hanging in the air between them as she turned around towards her daughter with two plates expertly clutched in her one hand a glass of milk in the other as though she was carrying a tray of the things.

Tsuna liked to believe that, should her brain actually have been normal, she would have had her mother’s almost ethereal balance.

She also wished she’d have her mother’s hair.

It was odd to Tsuna that her mother had such a dark brown color to her hair and her father (the half-Italian that shall forever remain a secret to her schoolmates) had such a dark blond color it almost looked like a straw-yellow, Tsuna had been left with something more akin to golden-brown. Only, as her hair was at the moment, that particular factor was way out of eyesight, it looked more like a muddy brown but that was just because she hadn’t washed it in about three days now.

She should probably get to that before she went to bed that night.

Nana settles down a plate of egg and bacon in front of her daughter, a cooling piece of toast on the other plate and proceeded to just sit there, head leaning on her knuckles as she watches her only child slowly eat the food with as much trained etiquette one can access that early in the morning. She usually did this, but this time… aside from the obvious air of awkwardness, she had a worried look on the face that greatly resembled her daughters.

About half-way through her meal, the look became too much for Tsuna.

“Mom.” the girl spoke up, setting down her fork as she turned towards the woman.

At the sound of her daughter’s voice, the woman jumped slightly. Too caught up in her own thoughts to register anything else Tsuna suspected.

“Mom, what is it?”

It took a few seconds, but the woman eventually let out a long breath, allowing her hand to slide down onto the table as she straitened out her back, looking at her daughter with a concerned look in her eyes.

“There’s just something...” the woman began, closing her eyes for a moment before she looked at her daughter again. “I feel as if something terrible is going to happen today.”

Tsuna couldn’t help the frown creeping onto her face.

Biting her lip, she reached out to tentatively take her mother's hand.

When was the last time she’d done that?

This wasn’t really something that happened often, she’d always been a lot more of a daddy’s little girl, so she’s never been as close to her mother as she’s been to her father.

The father that hasn’t physically been there since she was ten.

“Nothing’s going to happen,” Tsuna assured her mother. “It’s just school.”

Calming down a little, Nana smiled again.

“I suppose you’re right.”

* * *

A few minutes later, Tsuna was walking down her usual path towards school, her head held as high as she could as she tried not to think about the looks that followed her as she went.

She was one of the people in their small town that everyone could identify, only the reaction towards her was vastly different depending on the age of the person looking at her.

If the person was just over three years older than her, they would look at her either with thinly veiled pity or admiration for apparently being able to stand at all (as if putting one foot in front of the other was a huge miracle). If the person was just over three years younger than her, they would greet her with cheers of excitement and maybe even rush towards her to tackle her with a hug (playing with them whenever she finds the time will do that. But if the person was within that six-year time-frame just around her age, the looks they would send her would be filled with contempt, disgust, or even hatred if the person was spiteful enough, even though all she’d done was walk past them in the hallways of the school one day.

She brushed a few strands of messy hair out of her eyes, finding the annoying locks to tickle her forehead.

It was then that she heard them.

Footsteps, right behind her, rapidly approaching.

She couldn’t help the sense of dread that was slowly creeping up inside her. They were in a part of town where almost no one passed unless it was on the way to school, and at the moment, she could see no one else there.

Memory after memory of moments of brutal bullying flashed through her head one by one, making the dread build up higher and higher inside her.

But it didn’t matter, she still kept her back straight, her shoulders squared and her head held high like she always did.

No matter what happened to her, she would always stand strong.

“Sawada!”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Tsuna allowed herself to calm down.

There were precious few people that didn’t bully her, even less that showed her no contempt, but there was only one person that talked to her with such a carefree and even happy tone on his voice.

She spun around and met the smiling face of the very well known athlete running towards her.

“Yamamoto-san...” she allowed herself to acknowledge him softly when he finally reached her side, towering at over a head taller than her and that wide smile plastered onto his attractive features.

The second he stopped running, the smile was twisted into a teasingly scolding expression, his hands landing on his hips as he bent down over her.

“You disappeared half-way again.” he tried to pass it off as a joking statement but Tsuna could hear the genuine concern and the actual question hidden in those eyes.

She would not answer it.

“Can you blame me?” she asked, turning her feet around to continue walking.

It wouldn’t do if they were late for class.

“This is worse than middle school.”

Yamamoto quickly followed after her, claiming a spot at her left side before he kept talking, easily keeping pace with her.

““Can you blame me”?” the athlete mocked the shorter classmate good-naturedly. “That is really becoming your motto isn’t it?” he asked, nudging her gently with his elbow.

Tsuna swatter the offending limb away from her, rolling her eyes at the tone of her voice.

“Not even close.” she easily replied, not even bothering to look at her long-term classmate. “It needs to become a mantra before it becomes a motto.”

Yamamoto’s eyes locked onTsuna, an unreadable look plastered on his attractive features as he looked at the casual face of the girl next to him. The fact that she’d said something like that so easily… it worried him.

He plastered a smile back on his mouth, making sure it reached his eyes.

“I’m just learning more and more about you.” he chuckled.

“That’s what you wanted.” Tsuna shot right back.

He was not used to that, she was usually so quiet, and yet, she could have such quick retorts…

He chuckled once again, shaking his head before he reached out, putting his hand on her head to give her hair a good ruffle. Something that visibly shocked Tsuna but she quickly brushed it off, along with his hand.

“And I don’t regret it.” Yamamoto laughed.

Tsuna raised an eyebrow at his comment.

“Are you flirting with me?” she asked, her steps freezing for a short moment before she continued walking, her attention now fully locked onto the athlete.

“What would you do if I did?” he countered, voice dripping with a teasing tone that forced Tsuna to fight the smile from spreading across her face.

She was not comfortable enough around him yet to show him her smile.

Tsuna found her answer as they passed the school gates.

“Run.”

For a few long seconds, there was nothing but silence between the two long-term classmates, until suddenly, the athlete broke out into loud echoing laughter that seemed to shake his entire being. His torso bent over to clutch at his stomach before he allowed himself to straighten, finger wiping at his eye as he shook his head from his mirth.

Truthfully, Tsuna hadn’t thought it was that funny.

“Why have we never talked before?” the athlete asked once he’d gotten his breathing in order.

“You’re the only one that can answer that,” Tsuna answered almost immediately, sending the two classmates into a state of uncomfortable silence.

It was at that moment that Tsuna noticed a larger group of students standing some ways away from where the two of them had stopped. She noticed. Yamamoto didn’t. He didn’t see their frantic jumping and the enthusiastic waving of their arms, desperately trying to capture his attention.

She took a deep breath before she turned to the athlete.

“I think your friends are trying to get your attention,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the spirited students.

Yamamoto followed her movement and Tsuna could have sworn that she saw the smile that was almost permanently fused to his face falter for a split second.

“Yeah…”

Tsuna’s brows furrowed.

The way he answered, the way he’d said that one word. It was clear to Tsuna that Yamamoto wasn’t as psyched about hanging out with his group of associates as they obviously were to hang out with him. It was so obvious to her that she actually came to wonder how no one had caught onto that before.

Before she had the chance to ask him about it, his expression did a one-eighty, a smile replacing the look of resignation as he turned to her.

“I’ll see you in class?”

He sounded so sincere, so genuinely curious and maybe even hopeful that Tsuna couldn’t stop the response from slipping through her lips.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t.”

The smile she was awarded with at her answer would have shattered anyone else’s jaw.

“Don’t you go disappearing again!” he screamed, sending a large wave her way before he turned around and kept sprinting towards his cluster of teammates and admirers, leaving Tsuna standing there with her arms crossed, a heavy sigh escaping her lips.

“No promises.”

* * *

Groaning slightly, Tsuna pulled her tablet from her bag and unfolded it, preparing herself for the lesson that was about to roll around. Several others in the classroom were following her example, though they would never admit that they were doing that even if they had a gun pointed to their heads.

The first class after lunch, everyone was pretty much running high on the energy they had stuffed themselves with. Almost running around the room like two-year-old toddlers. She really should have expected something like this to happen.

She was once again going through her presentation, trying to commit most of it to her faulty memory when a small cluster of boys in the back of the classroom caught her attention.

They had gathered up in a tight circle, whispering about something that Tsuna was too far away to really hear, but she was sure they were whispering about her if the looks she could practically feel digging into her back were anything to go by.

Seriously… some people just didn’t have lives.

Suddenly, the group parted.

There stood Takahashi Jouichi, one of her more relentless bullies from the Athletic division, his face plastered into an almost permanent smirk as he slowly began to raise what could only be a 21st -century gun, it’s barrel pointing directly at her.

Tsuna would later be proud to say that her blood only froze for a split second before the logical part of her brain kicked in and calmed her down.

“I’m tired of your face Dame-Tsuna.” Terry said with a deep, wannabe-menacing voice. “Just die already.”

In normal circumstances, the sight of a gun should have frightened everyone. But seeing as it was a 21st-century gun that looked like it was in pristine condition, something that should only be found in heavily guarded firearm displays in museums and eccentric collections (also heavily secured and guarded), a.k.a not something the every human would be capable of getting their hands on, and after throwing a look around her at the rest of her classmates, she found some of them snickering into their hands in a lame attempt to try and look scared at the sight of the weapon.

So this was just a lame attempt to scare her then…

Frickin’ bullies…

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna turned back to her screen, returning to casually swiping her fingertips over the screen still folded up in her hands.

This, however, didn’t seem to sit well with Takahashi.

Growling, the boy stomped over to Tsuna’s desk, grabbing said girl by her arm and yanked her up to her feet, forcing the barrel of the gun under her jaw.

“PAY ATTENTION TO ME YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT!”

Much to his surprise, however, Tsuna’s face remained stoic.

“Hey, stop that!”

All sound in the classroom stopped at the sudden commanding voice, all eyes snapping towards the unspoken leader of the first-year Athletic division, Yamamoto Takeshi, getting up from his own seat, a never before seen serious look in his eyes as he pushed Takahashi away from Tsuna, positioning himself in front of her, glaring down at Takahashi in a clear power battle.

He was not amused by their classmate’s treatment towards the girl he’d just started to get to know.

“You’re taking this a little too far Jou.” the star athlete practically growled at the shorter male, eyes narrowed as he established his superiority.

Glancing at the back of the athlete’s head, Tsuna couldn’t help but think that maybe it was because of this tiny little reason that her bullies had become much more brutal in their advances towards her the past couple of weeks.

Alright, it may not be such a tiny little reason…

Suddenly having one of the most popular boys in school acting nice towards the most bullied person in school is definitely one way to capture the wrong kind of attention if you’ve got the luck of Sawada Tsunako.

Many believed that she was forcing him into acting that way towards her, but she’d much rather have him ignore her if everyone would bully her even more than before.

Why did THAT have to happen?

* * *

_ **March 27** _

_ **Friday 2215** _

_Tsuna had been walking out of the local school supply and uniform store, her arms weighed down by the shopping bags she’d just had filled up at the counter._

_Her mother had been with her when she’d first gone in, but shortly before they were to pay for the things, Nana had a call from her assistant Ogata Sakura, a poor panicky woman who freaks out if she accidentally applies icing on the wrong side of the cake._

_And yes, on a round cake you could just rotate and it’d be right._

_Anyway, Nana had to leave to deal with the apparent earth-shattering problem the young woman had somehow caused in a bakery and so, Tsuna was left alone to carry all of her shopping home._

_It was when she was walking through the shopping district that something suddenly ran into her. Usually, these kinds of things didn’t get more than a muted groan from her when in school, but this wasn’t school, this was in town, she didn’t have her usual walls up here, and so, the collision resulted in her letting out a cry of mixed pain and surprise as she suddenly found herself splayed out on the asphalt._

_A stinging sensation raced up her arms and knees, telling Tsuna that her skin had been scraped open._

_Great, just great._

_It was nothing new, but she couldn’t help the groan that slipped out of her throat._

_With her luck, the one that had run into her would actually cherish the pain she was in…_

_Looking around, Tsuna had to keep herself from letting out yet another groan, only this time more an annoyance than pain._

_All of her things… everything that she had just gone through the trouble of getting, were now scattered all over the asphalt around her, the only thing keeping the clothes from getting dirty being the plastic packaging they were put in as they were paid for._

_Thankfully, it didn’t look as though anything was broken._

_Tsuna was so caught up in her own thoughts that the sound of a familiar voice breaking through the surrounding white noise almost made her jump out of her skin._

“_Oh stars, are you alright!?”_

_What threw Tsuna off the most wasn’t that the voice sounded familiar, but that it actually sounded genuinely worried._

_Worried?_

_For her?_

_Well… there’s got to be a first for everything._

_Slowly, Tsuna used her arms to peel herself off of the asphalt, carefully adjusting her hands so that her scraped palms wouldn’t take the brunt of the pressure before brushing her messy hair behind her ear and brushing off as much dirt that could have gotten onto her._

_She didn’t know why she bothered really._

_It’s 2215 for horizon’s sake, there is barely a speck of dirt on both the paved ground and buildings._

_Thankfully, the buildings weren’t pure white and shiny like they are usually portrayed in Sci-Fi movies from the 21st century. Instead, they were painted in the softer pastel coloring and sported non-reflective windows where the buildings were closer-knit. Even the sun is no longer white in the sky, having long since regained its original yellow color thanks to the air and water purification stations littered in secret locations all over the globe, the sun is… well, still the sun, and is thus still very blinding even if it is no longer as dangerous as it once were._

“_Y-yeah… I’m fine.” Tsuna answered quietly, keeping her back turned to the owner of the voice as she looked out in dismay over her sea of scattered belongings._

_For a moment, there was complete silence between them, but then…_

“Sawada_?”_

_The voice didn’t even bother hiding the absolute shock in his voice._

_Suddenly, something inside Tsuna’s mind clicked into place._

_She now realized why that voice sounded familiar, knowing very well where she’d heard it before._

_Every day for as long as her memory reached._

_Slowly, every muscle in her tiny body tensed up as she forced herself to turn around, raising her head to look into the face of the person that had so violently crashed into her._

“_Yamamoto… Takeshi…?”_

_For a moment, the two of them just stared at one another, then, the athlete finally found his voice._

“_I am so, so sorry,” he said, getting down on his knees as he looked over the scrapes now littering her skin, a concerned frown etched into his eyebrows. “I should have watched where I was running.”_

_Tsuna could only stare at him, unsure of what she should do._

_She hasn’t opened her mouth around her classmates for several years, and now, one of the schools most popular boys was crouching in front of her and sounding genuinely concerned for her._

_This just… doesn’t… happen._

_ He must have noticed her staring, a sigh escaping his mouth as he began picking up her things and stuffing them into her upturned bags. _

_“Right, not talking.”_

_ The sight of Yamamoto Takeshi picking up her things of his own will forced the words out of her throat. _

_“What are you doing?”_

_ Pausing for a moment, Yamamoto looked up at her, eyebrow raised. _

_“What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked, holding up the one bag that he had already finished packing, making his obvious point all the more obvious._

_ For a moment, Tsuna couldn’t find her words. Not that that was anything new, oral communication had never been one of her strong points, even when she still talked to people. _

_ Swallowing, Tsuna braced herself. _

_“People… doesn’t just help me like that.”_

_ For a split second, Yamamoto’s movements faltered, almost freezing in place before he quietly continued. _

_ Once everything was back in the bags, the athlete turned back towards her, his eyes hovering over each and every one of her scrapes. They didn’t look too bad, none of them actually bleeding, but they were still there, and they were probably stinging something terrible if the bright red color and swollen patches were anything to go by. _

_ Sighing, he scratched the back of his neck. _

_“Do you have anything to treat those scrapes with?” he asked, looking at her with a soft expression._

_ Tsuna frowned at the question. _

_“Why are you asking?”_

_ Yamamoto groaned at her, rolling his eyes as he grabbed her_ _ by the wrist, turning her hand around to look at the scrape marring her tiny, fragile-looking little hand. It truly looked tiny too, almost dwarfed compared to his own. _

_“Do you have one or not?” he groaned, glancing up at her._

_ Sighing, Tsuna reached into the bag still hanging from her shoulder. _

_“I always do,” she answered, pulling out a small first-aid kit from her purse._

_ Not even bothering to ask why she would have one, to begin with, Yamamoto quickly snatched the kit from her hands, unzipping it to reveal the supplies inside of it, picking through the different objects with something of a clueless expression on his face. _

_“What are you doing?” Tsuna asked, narrowing her eyes as Yamamoto plucked a bottle of disinfectant from the small pack._

_Yamamoto groaned again. _

_“_ _ What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked with a surprising amount of annoyance given his reputation, obviously unsure hat he’s supposed to do with that particular type of disinfectant, fingering the cotton balls. _

_“Well, you’re doing it wrong.” Tsuna quickly snatched the bottle from his hand, expertly wetting one of the cotton balls and went to dabbing them over the scrape._

_ She as forced to stop when the cotton was snatched from her fingers. _

_“You’re…_ _ pretty used to this, aren’t you?” Yamamoto asked, sounding quite awkward as he picked up from where Tsuna had left off. _

_“Why do you care?” Tsuna asked, leaning back against the one hand that wasn’t scraped._

_ This made Yamamoto freeze up again. _

_“Sawada...” he sighed rather heavily, resuming in treating the scrapes the way he’d seen Tsuna do, wrapping them up in bandages or covering them with bio-fabric as he judged the size of the scrape and deciding what it needed. He glanced up at her. “We’ve been classmates since preschool.”_

_ Tsuna rolled her eyes at his words. _

_“Yes, and you haven’t exactly paid much attention to me before.” she lifted up her hand, adjusting the bandage in a way that wouldn’t as easily unravel the second she started moving again._

_ Yamamoto sighed, tightening the bandage around her knee. _

_“Can you blame me?” he asked lightly. “You don’t really appear to be the warmest of people in class.” he shook his head lightly, briefly allowing his eyes to meet hers before he returned his attention to what he was doing. “You’ve never spoken to anyone for as long as I can remember.”_

_ Tsuna rolled her eyes. _

_“_ _ Can you blame me?” she asked, voice dry. “No one has ever really talked to me without some sort of insult planned.” she picked up another cotton ball, handing it to the athlete. “So I just stopped talking to people altogether.” _

_ For a moment, Yamamoto just looked at her, the cotton lying completely forgotten in his palm. _

_“Sawada...” he whispered._

_ Tsuna just shook her head, taking the cotton back as she finished up the very last scrape. _

_“It’s done.” she declared, getting up from the ground._

_“Sawada,” Yamamoto spoke up again, more assured this time, grabbing onto her wrist as he too got off of the ground, staring her straight in the eyes._

_ The sudden touch made Tsuna flinch, unexpected pain shooting through her arm, making her yank her wrist right out of his grip, it was more out of reflex than anything. _

_ For a moment, Yamamoto just stood there, still as a statue, staring wide-eyed at Tsuna as she clutched her wrist. _

_ She was too unused to physical contact for that. _

_“What?” Tsuna asked, shaking her head before opening her mouth._

_ Taking a deep breath, Yamamoto scratched the back of his neck. _

_“If you’d let me...” he muttered, glancing around before his eyes once again found Tsuna’s barely visible ones through her bangs. “I’d like to get to know you.”_

_ For a moment, the two of them just stared at one another, neither of them quite sure how to continue. _

_ Finally, Tsuna tilted her head to the side. _

_“_ _ Really?” _

_Yamamoto swallowed again. _

_“Like I said...” he paused, trying to collect his words. “We’ve been classmates since preschool...” he trailed off, hoping that she’d understand what he was trying to say._

_ Tsuna’s eyes found the ground. _

_“And I’d be surprised if we weren’t again.” she finished for him, optioning to pick her bags off from the asphalt than actually looking at him._

_“Exactly.” Yamamoto agreed, sounding a lot more excited than before, his mouth quirking upward into more of a smile than the sheepish look he’d sported before. “We could at least try to get to know one another for once.”_

_ Tsuna’s fingers clenched around the handles of her bags, lower lip caught between her teeth as she mulled the suggestion over. _

_ This wasn’t something that had ever happened to her before. _

_ At least… not that she could remember. _

_ But… she figured it couldn’t be… _

_“Alright...” she finally breathed, glancing up at the athlete. “But just because you actually asked me.”_

_ The smile that greeted her at her words served as the indicator that she’d made the right decision. _

_ So happy… so genuinely relieved. _

_ She couldn’t possibly go wrong with this, could she? _

_“_ _ I’ll see you Wednesday then?” Yamamoto asked, taking a few steps away from her, smile still playing on his mouth. _

_ Tsuna allowed her head to bob into a slow, hesitant nod. _

_“Wednesday.”_

_ Slowly, she turned around and walked away. _

_“_ _ By the way Sawada!” freezing, Tsuna slowly turned back around to face the athlete, who’s usual heart-breaking smile as once again plastered over his handsome face. _

_ She gave him an expectant look. _

_“You should talk more often.” The words shocked her eyes wide. “You’ve got a nice voice.”_

_ And with that said, he turned back around, leaving Tsuna standing there, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks, turning her pale skin rosy in color. _

* * *

Ever since school started, Yamamoto has done almost everything he could to spend time with Tsuna, catching up with her whenever they found themselves walking to school at the same time, and this has only served to freak out Tsuna on multiple levels.

And not only that apparently.

Seeing Yamamoto Takeshi serious was a very rare thing of the baseball field as he usually smiled at everything, so seeing him with his eyes narrowed in actual serious anger, practically glaring at his shorter classmate, was a new thing for everyone. A new thing that, apparently, no one particularly liked seeing.

“Calm down Takeshi...” Takahashi breathed shakily, lowering the gun and taking a step away.

Letting out a nervous laugh, Takahashi gestured with the gun in his hand, still pointing it in Tsuna’s general direction.

“It’s only a prop from a historical drama my uncle was starring in.” he held out the gun, tightening his fingers around the trigger. “It only fires blanks, see.” and so, he pulled the trigger.

** BANG! **

* * *

Inside of the Crescent bakery, a plate slipped out of Sawada Nana's hands, crashing to the floor with a loud crash that had Sakura shrieking.


	2. Human Fragility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty.  
Just to put this out there, I'm not going to make this a daily thing.  
I'm currently going through my finished chapters and reworking them a bit so the chapter count might drop slightly as the chapters get longer, but I have decided that I will try to make an update at least every third day to give myself more time to write and plan.  
Also, if you find strange name changes, please let me know, they will most likely be alternate names that I used to help me in establishing the characters as I visualized them. I have already gone through the chapter a few times trying to change them back to the original canon names but if I missed one or more, please notify me and I will correct it as quickly as possible.  
Enjoy.

The silence that followed that cringe-worthy sound was even more deafening than the sound itself. Even though it didn’t sound at all like a 21st-century firearm actually sounded on the dramas, the sound itself had been rather loud and had come so suddenly that the class couldn’t find the words anymore.

Takahashi himself looked around the room with a slight smile on his face.

“You see?” he asked, waving the gun in his hand as if that would prove just how harmless it actually was. “Harmless.”

Not one eye was turned to Tsuna.

They probably should have been.

Slowly, said girl removed the hand that had, on reflex, flown to clutch at the side of her abdomen, her eyes slowly lowering down to her palm, and much to her horror, she found her fingers coated in a thick, red liquid.

Eyes widening, Tsuna suddenly realized just how hard it was to take a proper breath.

“Blood...” she murmured over the silence.

Because of the state of the class, Tsuna’s naturally overwhelming, even such a low tone managed to carry out over the whole room. Especially since it was the first word the absolute majority of them had ever heard her say.

As if on cue, all eyes turned towards her in absolute sync, just in time to see her knees give out underneath her weight, forcing her to fall backward in what probably would have been a very uncomfortable position, or even crashing into the desks behind her, had Yamamoto not quickly spun around to her with incredible speed, quickly catching her in his arms, gently turning her around as her breaths started to come out in hiccups.

He stared down at her stomach, watching something start glistening on the black fabric of her blazer. Hurriedly, he unbuttoned the thing, shoving the fabric aside and immediately paled.

The pure white fabric of her blouse was quickly soaking up a familiar thick red liquid that any living thing was dependent on to stay alive.

“Sawada?” he asked rather frantically as he carefully maneuvered her tiny body to lie on her back, her entire form shaking at the immense effort of simply taking one breath. He cupped his hands over the wound, frantically trying to keep her from bleeding out, but if the blank had pierced an organ, that wouldn’t help for long. “Sawada, stay with me.” he practically pleaded, staring down at her face.

Her eyes were still open, but as he looked at them, the pain was starting to cloud over the previous glow they had had no matter what emotion she’s showed him.

All around them, everyone was in a state of panic.

The students were staring, screaming, shaking one another as they all tried to decide what to do.

Apparently, calling the emergency hot-line was too hard for them to figure out.

The worst one off in the situation, however, was Takahashi.

For a long moment, he just stared at Tsuna, at the two large hands cupped over the white blouse that was now turning red at a much slower rate than before. His hand fell at his side, the prop gun falling out of his hand and landing on the tiled floor with a clatter that was swallowed up in the chaos surrounding him.

“What is going on here?”

Everyone in the classroom absolutely froze at the sound of the cold voice that they had all been forced to learn how to distinguish among thousands of others ever since middle-school. Yamamoto was the only one brave enough to peel his eyes away from what he was doing and actually look up at the speaker.

Hibari Kyoya, head prefect of Namimori high and number one law enforcer of the building looked around the room with an expression that promised pain for whoever had caused the chaos.

Then… his eyes fell on the petite girl gasping for breath on the floor, and his expression turned absolutely murderous.

Even though the head prefect was notably shorter than most of everyone else in the room, despite him being two years older than the lot of them, everyone shrunk away from his sight when his attention snapped towards the surrounding crowd, not even bothering to address the one person obviously trying to save the life of the member of the student body that everyone was able to address by name.

Well… the name they had given her at least.

“Explain,” he ordered, his voice even colder than before if that was even possible.

That was the moment that Takahashi’s legs gave out on him, his brain seemingly not having to even register the head prefects preference were still locked on Tsuna’s lithe, quivering frame, looking as though she was freezing. The prop gun still lay on the floor, not too far away from his leg, forgotten to everyone.

That was all the explanation Hibari seemed to need.

Quickly, Hibari fished out his sleek black obsidian type gem-phone apparently out of thin air. If one was within the line of sight to notice him dialing any form of number, they just saw him press the gem to his ear and waited for the call to connect.

He worked fast that Prefect.

His eyes never once left the pair of hands covering Tsuna’s bleeding stomach, even though his free hand seemed to be itching to magically produce his concealed weaponry, this was not the time to make even more victims. If he did, it would probably take longer for Tsuna to get any form of help, and at the moment, every minute she was still breathing was golden.

Yamamoto could feel the fear building up inside him as he noticed Tsuna’s large, now slightly clouded eyes blinking slower and slower with every passing second. Her breaths still came out in gasps, but at least she was still breathing.

After a short, stiff conversation, Hibari's ended the call and stuffed his gem away as he stalked over to the girl whose life was slowly draining out of her, his eyes hidden behind his pitch-black bangs.

Crouching down opposite Yamamoto, the athlete was shocked when the prefect put his hands over his, though his attention was firmly locked onto the girl’s face, his free hand reaching out to gently cup Tsuna’s clammy cheek, almost forcing her to turn her hazy gaze towards him.

“The ambulance will be here in five minutes,” he said, his voice the only thing steady in the class’s current condition, leaving no room for anyone to tell him that no one could predict actually when an ambulance would arrive. He probably wouldn’t allow that either way. “You think you can hold on till then herbivore?”

Yamamoto looked at the prefect in thinly veiled confusion.

Because he was so close to him, he could clearly hear the tone of actual, genuine, gentle concern in his voice, and the look in his eyes as he said those words…

No, he must be imagining things.

But… even the one word he usually used to demean people with was spoken with endearment when it was turned on Sawada…

No!

Imagination, it had to be his imagination.

For a frighteningly long moment, Hibari got no response from the struggling girl.

Then, her lips moved.

“I’ll… try...”

The most gentle smirk Yamamoto has ever seen crawled onto Hibari’s striking face.

“You’re stronger than you look herbivore.” he complimented with uncharacteristic gentleness. “Most people wouldn’t be able to keep out of delusion at this stage.” his hand brushed over her absolute mess of hair, moving her bangs away from her sweat covered skin.

Yamamoto found himself freezing at the sight of Sawada’s full face.

He had been able to see her eyes through gaps in her hair, but he’d never seen the entirety of her face before, and it was clear that despite what everyone was saying about her, she had nothing to be ashamed of looks-wise.

Loosely, Sawada shook her head.

“Not… strong...” she denied weakly through her gasping breaths. “Used… to pain...”

And it was true.

As much as Yamamoto wanted and wished to deny it, it was true.

He’d seen her limping home, the bruises forming on her pale skin at the end of the school day, and most, if not all, originating from her classmates becoming tired of harassing her with words alone, and thus took to physically hurting her. Pushing her down the stairs, shoving her into walls or lockers, pulling her hair, throwing her to the floor. Anything they could possibly think of that would help them vent their frustrations one way of the other made its way to her.

Both she and Yamamoto were glad that none of it had gotten even remotely sexual.

Probably because they believed her to be too disgusting for that kind of thing. Which was mean, but none the less a blessing in Sawada’s position.

It was probably better that they didn’t see her whole face then.

This thought made Yamamoto feel bad.

He’d never actually been there when any of this abuse happened, but he felt as though he should have done something to at least try and put a stop to it.

Sawada didn’t deserve anything that life put her through.

Yamamoto watched as a look of silent, comprehensive fury spread across Hibari’s face before he took a deep, calming breath, closing his steel-gray eyes as he took a deep breath.

He turned his attention towards Yamamoto.

“Keep up the pressure on the wound,” he instructed in that same steady voice, though there was a layer of fury in there. “It’s going to give her a few extra minutes at least.”

His steel gaze suddenly snapped down to where his own hands were resting on top of Yamamoto’s. He immediately proceeded to retreat his limb as though the touch of Yamamoto’s skin had physically burned him.

Quickly, Hibari stood up with a spin, turning him towards the rest of the class, his hard eyes burning with rage that he didn’t even bother to try and keep hidden once his face was out of Tsuna’s eyesight.

“I will not tolerate bullying inside my school,” he growled, glaring at everyone around him. His voice had been rather quiet, but just like Sawada’s one word, he was heard by each and every one of them, making their blood freeze over in their veins and forcing 80% of the students to instinctively take a step backward in fear.

These were the students that had actively taken part of the bullying at one part or another.

The ones that hadn’t, were easily spotted.

Sasagawa Kyoko almost ran to Sawada’s side, awkwardly falling to her knees at the smaller girl's head, trying to navigate her skirt so that it wouldn’t show off too much of her legs. Her hands found their way into the girl’s hair, gently stroking her over her clammy skin, muttering as many soothing, encouraging words as she could.

Kurokawa Hana had hesitated before she too had fallen to the floor at Sawada’s shoulder, taking the girl’s hand as she muttered to the girl to “prove women were stronger than that”.

Class president Kondou Yuki had calmly walked over, carefully adjusting Sawada’s position so that she lay in the most comfortable position possible before she set to packing up Sawada’s things, careful not to actually look at anything for too long before settling the finished bag at Yamamoto’s desk, at his request.

He would take it to her when she woke up.

Because she would get through this, no doubts about that.

The final person was the most surprising one.

It was one of the male students that have shared Sawada’s ballet class since the start of the school year.

Going by the name of Fujitaka Sasuke, the ballet dancer had stood there staring at Sawada, hands clenched and shaking at his sides before he had just as shakily found his legs moving towards Sawada’s trembling body, falling onto the floor where Hibari had just been crouching, letting his hands fall on top of Yamamoto’s, adding additional pressure on the wound.

Hibari threw a glance back to the scene before he turned his attention to the rest of the class.

“I’ll bite you to death.”

* * *

By the time the ambulance arrived three minutes later, Hibari was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest and one eye permanently focused on the shell-shocked class trembling in the corner, silently thanking the horizons that the head prefect actually hadn’t seriously hurt any of them.

But then again, if he had, Tsuna probably wouldn’t have been carried off by the paramedics as quickly as she had been.

Yamamoto and Fujitaka had both been a little reluctant to remove their hands from Sawada’s bleeding stomach, but the paramedics had been very convincing, and so, they had wheeled Sawada out of the building, leaving the remaining students to stare out the window as the ambulance drove away with their classmate.

The head Prefect has actually gone with them, them not even bothering to tell him no, his town-wide reputation allowing him to just jump into the back of the ambulance with the injured girl before the doors closed and they sped away.

He probably wanted to personally make sure that Sawada got the best treatment possible.

Sawada had passed out about a minute before they had arrived, and this had made many of them almost panic, but Kyoko, the angel, had been caring enough to keep her fingers almost permanently planted on Sawada’s jugular vein, keeping track on her pulse to ensure them all that her heart was still beating.

It had been tricky to pry her away from Sawada’s side as well.

It had been one of the most traumatic experiences the class had ever gone through, something that would most certainly automatically sign them up for individual visits to the therapist in the future.

One student desperately fighting for her life.

One student having to live with his joke backfiring horribly on him.

Five students have desperately tried to make sure that the dying girl would survive for five long minutes.

And a whole classroom of frightened students having to juggle the shock of having witnessed someone getting injured by a blank bullet and the fear of having to face the punishment of the scariest person in school. And it had been bullying that had landed them all in that position.

As the paramedics had disappeared with Hibari in tow, Yamamoto Takeshi had remained on his knees, staring intently at the blood-stained hands resting on his lap.

Takeshi had never actually thought about just how fragile life could be, why should he have? He was turning sixteen in just a few days! And now, he had been forced to experience actually holding such a fragile life in the palm of his calloused hands.

He never wanted to go through something so terrifying again.

The five students stood for themselves, Kyoko’s hands resting on Takeshi’s shoulders, Kurokawa staring out the window after the retreating ambulance, Kondou having wrapped her arms around Fujitaka’s shoulders, them being childhood friends keeping this from being too awkward.

They all tried to gain some strength from one another as they thought about what they had all been working towards just a few moments ago.

Keeping Sawada Tsunako alive.

Silently, and really without knowing it, all five of them silently agreed on one thing.

From that moment on, they would work to stop bullying in their school.

They would do anything, and if that just happened to Sawada Tsunako was anything to go by, then bullying can be a lot more dangerous than anyone would have liked to know.

* * *

Nana’s hands had been covered in flour when the call had arrived at the bakery.

She’d been forced to answer it through vocal commands, and thus the whole staff had gotten to hear the news of their irregular helper having wound up in the hospital emergency ward.

It hadn’t taken much for them to convince Nana to leave, ensuring her that everything would be alright and she needed to be with her daughter right now.

And so, there she was, pacing in front of the operation door, it’s red light blaring down at her, mocking her with its existence.

She didn’t want to know that her daughter was still being operated on, she wanted to know what in the world happened to her in the first place and whether or not she would survive the night!

What would she tell Iemitsu if she didn’t make it?

When she’d first arrived at the hospital, she’d been greeted by one of the prefects from Tsuna’s school, telling her where to find her daughter before she had left to deal with the situation he had most likely left Tsuna’s class in by getting into that ambulance.

Letting out a shaky breath, Nana sank into one of the chairs by the wall, burying her face in her hands.

She should have listened to her instincts that morning.

She shouldn’t have let her daughter leave her house.

If she’d just been more confident in her motherly intuition, none of this would have happened!

Nana struggled to keep herself from crying.

Finally, after what felt like ages, the red light went out from above the door.

Nana practically flew to her feet as the doors opened and a doctor walked out, removing the rubber gloves from his hands.

His eyes fell on Nana.

“Sawada-san?” he asked with a breath.

“Yes,” Nana answered, hands clenched in front of her chest.

The doctor looked as though he was bracing himself for an incoming punch.

“We have done what we could to the hole in your daughter’s stomach.” Nana’s face paled drastically.

Hole?

What hole?

Why would there be a hole in her daughter’s stomach?

“But I’m afraid she’s lost too much blood, so she’ll be out of it for a while as her body gets used to the transfusion.”

Nana couldn’t take it anymore.

“What happened to her!?” she almost screamed, knowing that should she actually scream in this building, she would most likely get thrown out.

The doctor put a hand in his pockets, letting out a long sigh.

“It would appear that one of her classmates brought a prop gun to school for a class assignment and wasn’t aware that even a blank bullet can cause considerable damage if fired at a close enough distance,” he answered slowly, looked the distraught mother right in the eyes.

Nana’s hands found her mouth, forcing herself to keep the tears in.

Swallowing, she looked up at the door.

“Can I see her?”

The doctor nodded slowly and guided Nana through the doors.

* * *

Nana had never seen her daughter look so weak.

Lying on the operation table with her messy hair fanning out around her, naked, her skin paler than she’d ever seen and beads of sweat still clinging onto her clammy face.

It as a frighteningly long time before Nana finally spotted the light rise and fall of her daughter’s chest underneath the thin papery cloth covering her private parts.

She didn’t look anything like the strong-willed young woman she’d raised basically on her own for the past six years.

This girl looked more like a porcelain doll that had been dumped into a muddy puddle than she did a teenage girl, and the sight did not serve to make things any better for the pastry-chef as she slowly walked up to the table, her hands trembling.

Cautiously, Nana reached out her hand to stroke her daughter over the cheek.

She was almost scared that she’d collapse in on herself if she applied too much pressure.

“Tsu-chan?” she whispered, hoping to high heaven for some form of response. “Tsu-chan, can you hear me?”

That’s when it happened.

**CRACK!**

It was like the sound of metal suddenly snapping, echoing through the room for a split second become everything toppled sideways.

It all started when Nana suddenly felt as though her palm touching her daughter’s cheek was on fire, the monitor keeping track of Tsuna’s temperature suddenly shooting up, before the tiny girl’s whole body suddenly erupted in violent spastic movement looking to be originating from her chest area, thrashing around on the operation table as though she were a fish that had just been taken out of the water and thrown there to have her head chopped off.

Nana barely had the time to register the doors being thrown open behind her and the figures rushing up all around her before she suddenly found herself thrown out of the room, barely having the time to regain the balance.

For a moment, she just stood there outside of the operation room door, the red light once again blaring down on her, staring down at her palm, at the bright, flushed red color it had taken on from the brief contact it had had to her daughter’s skin.

No...

She started shaking.

This couldn’t happen, it just couldn’t

She was too young, it just couldn’t be real, Nana wouldn’t believe it.

She told herself that, and yet, her hand still slid down into her pocket to retrieve her gem as her feet steered her out of the building.

This was one conversation she couldn’t afford to be interrupted.

* * *

Inside of a darkened room, an elderly man watched with wide eyes as a flame flickering inside of a transparent crystal ball roared into a large, blazing inferno that looked to be threatening to snap the apparently thin line of glass keeping it in.

It was time.

* * *

** _April 20_ **

** _Monday 2215_ **

Tsuna let out a weak groan as she slowly forced her eyes open.

The first thing that hit her was the sheer brightness of the room, blinding her for a split second before she blinked the light away. The second thing was the pressure surrounding her hand. The last thing, however, was the thing that had almost sent her shooting out of the stiff bed she found herself lying in.

Before, she had felt as though her body hadn’t belonged to her, as though she was constantly wearing a comically large costume of a school-mascot, several sized to big for her to comfortably walk around in, way too heavy for someone of her stature to have on her shoulders, and she also suspected that she might have been severely allergic to the material of which the costume had been made out of.

But now…

Never mind the almost ghost-like pain in her stomach, she felt as though someone had finally noticed her predicament with the costume and thus had decided to exchange it for one that was more her size. It was still a few sizes too big, way too heavy, and obviously made out of the same material as the first one, but she found that she wasn’t quite as bothered by her own body as she had been before.

She tentatively tried to move her limbs to see if anything was wrong with her, but all she found was the pressure around her one hand keeping her arm in place, otherwise, she could find no problems with her motions.

Okay, she did have that one moment when she attempted to move her back and white-hot pain shot through her stomach, but she was fine.

The events from the classroom came flooding back to her at the sensation though.

She let out another groan.

Of course, of course, she would wound up getting mortally wounded by a prop gun.

When was her bad luck going to turn around?

Slowly, mindful of the wound in her stomach, Tsuna lifted herself off of the mattress, looking down at whatever had weighed down on her so much.

There was her mother, lying on the mattress from where she was sitting in the visitor’s chair and clutching onto her hand as though her life depended on it.

Seeing her mother's usually maintained hair looking more like her own, Tsuna flashed back to the last time she’d seen her mother, the awkwardness of their conversation, and more importantly, what she’d said to her.

She sighed.

“Looks like you were right Mom.” she whispered, slightly surprised to find nothing wrong with her voice apart from the natural hoarseness that came with its lack of use.

Gently, Tsuna allowed her hand to slide out of her mother’s grip, allowing her fingers to stroke over her mother’s chocolate-colored strands.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had just had a quiet moment with her mother like this, or even the last time she’d had physical contact with any of her parents.

They used to have movie-nights every Friday, sitting down with unhealthy snacks in front of the TV and just relish in the company, but those had just started happening less and less until they just stopped happening altogether.

When was the last time she’d even been hugged?

Feeling the grease under her hand, Tsuna’s attention returned back towards her mother.

When was the last time she’d showered?

At the touch of her hand, Nana began to stiffen.

Opening her eyes, Nana was met with those identical pairs of light brown eyes that she had been waiting almost three whole days to see again whilst waiting at her daughter’s side. She had only left the hospital to get some sleep and food in her stomach. Even the frantic Sakura had been understanding enough to not call Nana in a panic during this time, no matter how much she must have wanted to.

“Tsu-chan!” Nana called out in absolute joy, tears streaming down her face as she threw her arms around her daughter’s neck, hugging her as close to her chest as she allowed herself, fearing that her daughter’s wound would re-open should she be too violent. “Thank the stars you’re awake.” she breathed into her messy curls.

It took a moment before Nana finally let go of Tsuna, sliding back down into the chair, wiping away the tears from her rosy cheeks.

“How long was I out?” Tsuna asked slowly, carefully adjusting her position on the bed as to not aggravate the wound more than necessary.

“It’s Monday,” Nana answered shortly, still wiping at her eyes and cheeks with the handkerchief she’d whipped out of her pocket.

Tsuna had never been good at math.

Truthfully, she'd never bothered memorizing the days of the week more than merely the name of them.

It took a few seconds before her answer came to her.

“Two full days?” she asked, not really wanting to believe it. The last time this had happened she hadn’t been allowed to leave for almost a month for several reasons. She squared her shoulders and looked at her mother. “What did the doctors say?”

Nana lowered the handkerchief with a sniffle, straightening herself out.

“You need to stay in bed for a few days,” she instructed, once again taking her daughter's hand. “The wound needs to heal up more before they can give you a skin-grafting over the stitches.” a smile formed on her face. “After that, you get to come home.”

Nana was well aware of her daughter's dislike for hospitals. There was just something about the atmosphere that rubbed Tsuna the wrong way, and with how many times she’s had to visit them over the years…

“I’ve just woken up and I’m already sick of this place,” she muttered, looking away from her mother.

That as when she noticed them.

Flowers.

Two beautiful bouquets of flowers adorned the room that had been assigned to her. One of roses stationed on her left, a beautiful vase holding them on top of her nightstand. The other was a beautiful purple kind of flower that Tsuna was afraid to say that she didn’t know the name of as flowers had never really been that big of an interest for her.

Slowly, she allowed herself to glance back at her mother, who appeared to be studying her quite intensely.

“Who are the flowers from?” she asked softly, her eyes gravitating back to the flora.

Nana allowed herself to smile at the wonder in her daughter's eyes.

“The Hyacinth’s are from one… Takahashi Jouichi,” she answered slowly.

Oh, so that’s what the purple ones were called…

Nana kept talking.

“Purple ones mean ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me, and sorrow’ in the flower language,” she said this with just the tiniest hint of anger in her voice. Obviously, she’d been able to guess (quite correctly) the reason behind the meaning of those flowers.

“Really?” Tsuna breathed right back.

Takahashi’s family owned a flower shop, there was no surprise to her that he’d known the right kind of flower to send her to get what he wanted across, but it was still strange to receive something like that in the first place. Not to mention apologizing at all, that was a first.

Not to mention, the flower was quite beautiful in her eyes.

“The roses.” Nana began again, motioning with her hand to the flora right at Tsuna’s side, her smile back and the anger completely gone, now replaces with a tone that Tsuna could only describe as suggestive. “I don’t know his name, but he was quite charming.”

Tsuna did not want to know why her mother was raising her eyebrow like that, turning off her logical reasoning and observational skills for a moment to remain blissfully naive to her mother's hidden meanings.

She couldn’t deny that the roses warmed her heart though.

“Why did he…?” she whispered her half-formed question, only half registering her mother telling her that she was going to fetch the doctor and leaving the room, allowing her to lay back down onto the mattress.

Slowly, Tsuna reached out her hand, allowing her fingertips to brush over the deep red petals of the closest rose, desperately trying to recall the face of the boy that had given them to her in the first place.

For the first time in her limited memory, she wished she had actually paid attention to her classmates.

* * *

** _April 21_ **

** _Tuesday 2215_ **

Tsuna silently cursed the hospital policy of no foreign technology activities within the walls as she turned yet another page in one of the many books her mother had brought her.

She was well aware that humanity was practically locked to the moving screens nowadays, but Nana really had no idea what books Tsuna liked to read, so now she was stuck flicking through the pages of one of the most cringe-worthy “romance” novels Tsuna has ever had the misfortune to get her hands on.

She had nothing against romance, so long as it was a realistic romance, and falling in love with a vampire that did little more than constantly stare at you was definitely not romance.

She’d much rather be reading a book of concept art for a fantasy movie right now, at least that would give her inspiration for future painting and actually keep her interest for as long as she needed it.

She’d been so locked in her own thoughts that she’d almost missed the sound of the door opening.

“Yo, Sawada.”

The sound of that familiar voice almost made Tsuna drop her book.

Now that she thought back at it, she probably should have allowed that book to drop. Instead, she removed her eyes from the pages and turned her attention to the fifteen-year-old standing in the doorway.

Actually, he’d be turning sixteen in three days, wouldn’t he?

“Yamamoto-san?” she asked uncertainly, not even bothering to mark her page in the book before almost snapping it shut in front of her, placing it on the table next to the roses that had somehow managed to keep blooming through these days as she allowed herself to be distracted from that incredibly horrible read.

The athlete was smiling brightly at her as he stalked into the room.

Tsuna couldn’t help but notice that there was something tucked under his arm…

“Your Mom called the shop, said you woke up,” he explained softly, settling down on the visitor’s chair in front of Tsuna as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Of course, this statement confused Tsuna.

Sure, Yamamoto had almost gone out of his way to being nice to her for the past few weeks, but Nana didn’t know about that, so why would her mother call Yamamoto’s father’s shop to tell them she’s woken up?

“She… did?” Tsuna found herself asking tentatively, anxiously rubbing her hands together over the sheets.

“Yup.” the athlete answered with a bright smile, as though that would answer everything. He leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable as he looked Tsuna over, letting his eyes quickly run over her body. “So, how are we feeling?

Tsuna tried to quell the unease she felt at the question.

It had been strange enough when Yamamoto had started going almost out of his way to being nice to her, but as it really necessary for him to visit her in the hospital as well? It only made her rub her hands even harder, the pain helping her confirm that she really was awake and that this wasn’t some kind of morphine-induced dream.

Not that she was on any morphine.

Hospitals had exchanged that for another substance that eased the pain on a much more thorough level without having to muddle-up the brain as it did so. And even so, Tsuna wasn’t in much need of that, seeing as her wound only hurt whenever she moved around either too much or too quickly.

Something that she managed to do right now.

Sitting up in the bed, Tsuna had completely forgotten herself in her confusion, the pain shooting through her stomach reminded her by forcing her to double over, her hand clutching at the stitching as a gasp escaped her lips.

“Hey!” Yamamoto exclaimed, almost shooting out of the chair to grab her by the shoulders, carefully laying her back down against the pillows. “Careful.”

Staring up at the ceiling, Tsuna thought back at the question the athlete had asked her, slowly waiting for the pain to ebb away before she finally decided to open her mouth.

“Honestly...” she muttered, almost shocking Yamamoto as she did, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. “I’m feeling better than I have in years.”

For a moment, Yamamoto looked at her in confusion, before the look morphed into an expression of disbelief.

“Really?”

Tsuna rolled her eyes, taking a deep breath as she slowly pulled her legs up to her chest, allowing her head to rest on top of her knees in one of the first successful attempts to fold herself in threes since she got shot.

She let her eyes rest on the athlete.

“Wound aside,” Tsuna mumbled, taking a deep breath as she tilted her head slightly to the side. “I’m feeling better than I have in years.”

Now, Yamamoto just looked confused.

He somehow looked very different than he did when surrounded by their fellow classmates.

She decided to finally put the poor boy out of his misery.

“My body feels more like mine now.”

As she expected, Yamamoto looked even more confused than he did before.

“And it didn’t before?” he slowly asked after a moment of silence.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna slowly shook her head, messy strands of hair falling in front of her eyes as she allowed her legs to slide just a bit away from her chest.

She locked eyes with the athlete, her face stone-cold serious.

“No.”

Not for a moment, the two of them just sat in silence, not looking at one another as they thought over the situation in their heads.

Who would have thought that either of them would be there?

This sparked a question inside Tsuna’s mind.

Awkwardly turning towards her long term classmate, she cleared her throat, succeeding in catching his attention.

“Can I ask you something, Yamamoto-san?” she asked timidly.

Seeing her so uncomfortable brought a reassuring smile to Yamamoto’s mouth, hoping it would make it easier for her to talk to him.

He never seemed to have a problem talking to her.

“Shoot.” it wasn’t until just after he had said it that he realized just how insensitive that word probably was to her, his caramel-colored face paling as the realization hit him.

The word brought a rather uncomfortable look at the young man’s face. Groaning in shame, he scratched at the back of his neck, looking at her in shamed apologies.

Tsuna just shook her head, waved a hand in the air, swallowing hard as she gathered up the courage to actually ask the question that was burning away at her brain, worried about the possibility that she might insult him.

“Why are you here?”

It may have sounded slightly as if she was complaining, but they both knew that it was more or less a valid question. Whilst Yamamoto may have started to pay more attention to her very existence for the past couple of weeks, he’d never really done anything more than smile and talk to her, anytime before that, he had barely looked her way.

Huh… that was a rather sad thought that they have shared the exact same class since middle-school, same school building since they were six and they barely knew anything about the other. It was like someone was desperately trying to make them interact, and yet, nothing had come from their plans, and now Tsuna was confined to a hospital bed for the second time in her life.

Sighing heavily, Yamamoto appeared to be reaching out for Tsuna’s hand, only he stopped himself before his fingertips had the chance to brush against her skin.

Fingers clenching, he retracted his limb.

“Sawada...” he sighed, one of his hands scratching at the back of his neck, his fingers weaving into the ruffled black locks at the nape of neck. “I think it’s impossible for someone to have someone else’s blood on their hands without feeling the need to be close to the person.” he seemed to freeze for a moment, thinking over his words before he started speaking again at a much more hurried pace. “Unless of course, you were the one that caused the shed blood in the first place, then I really have no idea what you would feel.”

Realization dawned in Tsuna’s light brown eyes, a stark contrast to his pondering hazel ones.

“You mean...” she swallowed hard, trying to force her words out. “You mean that… you were the one who...” she couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I was the one who pressed down on your wound until the paramedics arrived, yes,” Yamamoto admitted slowly, once again locking his eyes with hers. A thoughtful look passed over his face. “Well… me and that Fujitaka guy.”

Tsuna frowned.

Fujitaka?

She knew that name… where did she know that name?

For a long moment, the two of them just stared at one another.

It was at that moment, Tsuna felt a strange connection to the athlete. It wasn’t a romantic connection in the least, but she still felt like her life was somehow connected to his in a weird, spiritual way.

She didn’t know whether or not that connection had been there all the time and she just didn’t know, or if it had come into being the moment he had put his hands on her bleeding stomach, but she knew, she just knew, in the back of her mind, that she was connected to this young man in a way that she had yet to figure out.

“Yamamoto-san...” she muttered, forcing both of them out of their thoughts. “You saved my life.”

This earned her a light laugh and yet another scratch at the back of the neck from Yamamoto.

“I… I guess I did… huh.”

They remained there for a while, talking about whatever Yamamoto could think about.

The main subject was about just how school was coping since she was shot, and, according to the athlete, their whole class had gotten rightfully punished for everything they had done to her, most of them even loudly declaring that they would never bully another person so long as they lived again. But of course, both she and Yamamoto knew that that declaration wouldn’t hold once their lives fell back to the way they were before they once again found that they had to take their frustration out on something.

What Tsuna found the most relieving news, was that Takahashi had been suspended for his recklessness with the prop he’d brought. Yamamoto heard that he’d even pulled out of Namimori high, and he would enroll in another school once he felt like he was ready for it.

Surprisingly, Tsuna found herself not dreading the thought of returning to school.

Something told her that her school life would be a lot easier to live once she was finally released from the white-painted walls that were constantly trying to blind her with just how bright they were when the sun hit them from the open windows. Whilst the outside buildings were painted in soft colors so as to not blind people, the hospital obviously had no such qualms.

She was kind of looking forward to going back to school after so many days of locked up in this prison.

The two classmates had been talking for a few minutes when Tsuna’s eyes fell on the little something that had completely skipped her attention for several minutes.

It was a school bag, the one that had been tucked in under Yamamoto’s arm when he had stepped into the room. It wasn’t his own bag, she knew that. Yamamoto had a baseball patch sewn onto the front, with several autographs and gem contact information from his dedicated female fanbase who “happened” to get hold of his bag when he was practicing. The bag was now leaning against one of the legs of the chair, just waiting for someone to notice it again.

Biting her lip, Tsuna made up her mind.

“What’s that?” she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

It had gotten a lot easier to talk to him over the past couple of weeks, considering she hadn’t done much talking to anyone in school for a long, long time, and now, here she was, conversing with one of the school’s most popular boys as if it was the most natural thing in the words to her.

Well… more natural than anything else at least.

Glancing down, Yamamoto’s eyes widened.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” he exclaimed, leaning down to fish up the bag from the ground with expert swiftness.

He allowed the bag to fall into his lap, letting Tsuna see it clearly.

It was her school bag, the silver strap sporting a crystal bead with golden wires wrapped artistically around it tied to the zipper next to the crystal lotus being the strongest indicator of that fact.

“Kondou packed up your things for you that day.” he looked at her somewhat apologetically, obviously apologizing for someone going through her things without asking her first, but she didn’t hold it against him. Someone had to take care of her things when she was out after all. Finally, he cleared his throat. “I figured might want to have them until you can get out of this place.” he fingered the handle of the bag, awkwardly clearing his throat. “Of course, I had to turn off your gem and tablet because...” he waved a hand in the air. “Hospital.”

Handing Tsuna the bag, he leaned back as he watched her almost frantically zipping it open, strap flying as she looked through her belongings.

Her eyes brightened suddenly, as she fished out a thick, black, leather-bound book sporting what looked like a golden crest carved and painted into the leather with golden paint. For a moment, she just sat there, letting her hand run over the detain of the cover, almost entranced at the sight of the object in her hands.

To be honest, Tsuna was quite surprised that she got to see that thing again.

Yamamoto watched the look in her eyes. It was such a pure, open expression, one that he had never seen on her before, one that he doubted anyone aside from her own parents had seen before.

“That important to you?” he asked snatching Tsuna’s attention away from the book.

Still smiling slightly, she nodded, turning back to the book.

She had always been worried about keeping her things in school, in case one of her bullies decided to go through her desk and think it would be a “funny prank” to destroy all of her belongings. So having them in front of her, looking like they hadn’t been away from her line of sight at all, was a great relief to her.

Looking back at Yamamoto, Tsuna gave him the biggest, most genuine smile that she could remember ever giving anyone for several years.

Even her mother.

“Thank you.” she breathed, voice barely louder than a whisper.

Slightly taken aback at the sudden smile, Yamamoto had to shake his head before smiling right back at her.

“Don’t mention it.”

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound rang through the air, almost making Tsuna jump out of her skin.

Yamamoto’s hand flew to his wrist where he had a special 21st century styled wristwatch strapped, his thumb jamming down on the screen that was blaring a bright blue light.

The noise immediately died down.

For a moment, Yamamoto just stared down at the annoying noise-maker, finally, he sighed in frustration, tapping on the screen to make sure that the alarm wouldn’t start off again.

Grabbing his bad as he got up from the chair, Yamamoto looked down at Tsuna who was looking up at him with a questioning look in her light brown eyes.

“I got to go.” the athlete stated, jerking his head in the direction of the door with a somewhat regretful tone to his voice. “Baseball practice starts in about half an hour so-”

“I get it.” Tsuna cut him off, her hand raised with her palm facing him.

She was well aware of how much baseball meant to the boy, and she didn’t want to be the thing that stood between him and doing the thing he obviously loved.

He smiled gratefully at her.

He just shook his head, surprising her by reaching out his arm, his hand landing on top of her birds-nest hair and giving it a good ruffle and turned around to exit.

Only for him to pause in the doorway.

“By the way, Sawada.”

Looking up from the sketchbook, Tsuna was met with the signature smile that for better or for worse had basically became associated with the athlete.

“You’re really good at that.” with that said, the athlete nodded town towards the sketch-book. His energetic smile turning more gentle before he gave her a small wave, and disappeared out the door, leaving the girl alone to stroke her hand over her book.

In the span of three days, high-school had actually managed to change her life around in the one way probably no one could have ever imagined. First, there was the mere factor that one of the schools most popular boys had started talking to her, and now she was lying in a hospital bed with a hole in her stomach with the doctors currently checking out several tests to try and figure out why she was feeling different in her own body.

She was scheduled for an x-ray in just half an hour.

Who would have thought that Tsuna would have had to get shot in the stomach before she got the chance to actually start living?


	3. Happy News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hospital Woes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I got to all the name changes, but again, if I didn't, let me know.

The first time Tsuna had been shoved into a brain scanner, she’d been told horror stories about the old magnetic scanners that required the head being caged to a board with earmuffs to block out the loud pounding noise the machine would give off with every picture snapped.

Thankfully, she would not have to be put through that, and by now, she was so used to pictures being taken of her brain that it was just standard procedure for her, almost falling asleep on the slab as doctors stared at 3D x-ray pictures of the squishy thing inside her head that she’d known had problems for several years now.

They had decided to shove her into this device after she’d informed them that she was feeling better and having less problems than what she’d felt before. It had intrigued them, and they wanted to see if something had changed inside her skull.

To be honest, she was legitimately curious.

Finally, the doctors pressed the button to pull the slab out of the machine.

As the slab was pulled out, she could hear the door open and the familiar sound of doctor shoes stepping in. She turned her head towards the approaching white-coat, immediately spotting the bright vibrant smile on his face.

“What’s wrong doctor?” Tsuna asked, sitting up and slipping off of the slab with a level of grace that she hadn’t been able to access previously. Thankfully, the pain in her stomach had faded away rather quickly, allowing her to move around much more smoothly than before, than ever in fact.

The doctor just kept smiling.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he answered, stepping up to her as he activated the screen in his hands. “We just discovered what might be the cause of your newfound comfortability with your body.” his smile turned a bit mischievous as he swiped his fingers over the screen.

This got Tsuna’s attention.

“What is it?” she asked, almost cautiously.

Dr. Kondou (the father of her class president) tapped at the screen a handful of more times before a hologram was projected from the top of the screen, allowing Tsuna to see just what they had been looking at.

Of course, she knew very little about such things.

Two versions of her brain were next to one another, slowly spinning in the air between the two of them. They were just about the same size but Tsuna could tell that there was something different about them aside from that. She couldn’t quite put her finger on how they were different, but she could tell that they were.

Thankfully, Dr. Kondou decided to enlighten her.

“Your brain has started to partially develop what you’ve previously been lacking.”

For a moment, Tsuna could just stare at the images, her mind trying to register just what it was she was being told.

The one thing that had thrown stick after stick in the wheel of her life with 100% accuracy for as long as she could remember, and it was starting to repair itself now?

Before Tsuna knew it, the tears were streaming down her cheeks, her heart pounding in her chest as almost overwhelming happiness flooded through her system. It wasn’t until she realized that her breaths were coming out in labored hiccups, a hand landing on her back trying to calm her down, that she understood just how close she was to hyperventilating.

Sitting back on the slab, Tsuna furiously rubbed away the tears from her cheeks, Dr. Kondou sitting down next to her, hand still in between her shoulder-blades.

“Obviously,” he began, turning off the hologram on his screen. “The adrenaline you experienced cause something to happen in your brain.” he set the screen down on the slab to pull a handkerchief out of his pocket, handing it to the teenager so that she may wipe the tears with something other than her hands.

It took a few moments before she managed to get her voice working again.

“What are you going to do?” Tsuna hiccuped, still wiping at her eyes.

“We’re not going to open your head and try and operate, don’t worry.” Dr. Kondou answered with a light chuckle, taking his hand away from her back to get a better look at her. “What we’re going to do, is create special pills to make your body go through the same levels of adrenaline you went through during your injury, without actually feeling it.”

Pills…

They were going to give her pills…

The thought of being on a pill didn’t sit well with Tsuna, but if it could help her to get over a decade old problem...

“How long will that take?” she found herself asking.

“Not too long, don’t worry.” came the doctor's immediate answer, getting off of the slab with the screen in hand, already tapping away at it in obvious preparation to what he was telling her. “You’ll be just like any other teenager before you know it.” he helped her to her feet, her fingers still clenched around the handkerchief as he guided her out of the room.

“Stars that’s a strange thought,” she muttered under her breath.

* * *

_ **April 24** _

_ **Friday 2215** _

It was drawing closet to the afternoon as Tsuna sat cross-legged on top of the bed, her leather-bound sketch-book folded up in front of her as she expertly moved her pen over the paper, only removing it every once in a while to lodge the butt of the pen between her teeth, studying the picture that was slowly forming.

It was almost finished, just a few more touched to the shadows…

Biting down on the pen sideways as a make-shift storage of sort, Tsuna extended her pinky, smudging some of the lines on the sketch, creating a much smoother transition from bright white to black.

Finally, she removed the pen from her mouth, hooking it in between her ring and middle finger as she held out the book in front of her, studying it with her self-critical eyes before nodding in satisfaction.

Carefully, she pulled the sketch from the book jacket, gently folding it over before putting it on top of the bedside table. There it would sit until it’s future owner arrived for his almost daily visit.

It was at that very moment, that Dr. Kondou decided to enter through the door, almost startling Tsuna enough to drop her sketch-book.

The man had only left her room a few hours ago after her daily check-up. She was scheduled for a skin grafting in just a few hours, officially released on Monday morning and thus was only required to meet with the doctors once a day, so there was no reason for Dr. Kondou to walk into her assigned room.

Setting down the sketch-book on her bed, Tsuna turned fully towards the doctor.

“Is there anything wrong?” she asked, a sense of uncertainty forming in her stomach.

Those words had become something of an automatic reaction by now.

The doctor just smiled, shaking his head before he stuffed his hand into his pocket, the smile turning mischievous once again.

“No.” he answered. “Just got something for you.”

And with that, he pulled out two bottles of colorful pulls, holding them out towards the confused girl, before her expression cleared in understanding.

“What are they for?” she asked slowly, taking the bottles from the doctor's hands and looking at them in confusion, finding no labels on them.

“The green one.” he gently pocked the bottle with the small pastel-green hockey-puck shaped pills. “Will increase the levels of adrenaline in your body, whilst the pink ones.” he pocked at the bottle containing tiny pearl-like pills that looked more like pink fish eggs. "Are to allow you to go through the day without having to feel like you're running on an adrenaline high." he chuckled a little at his own joke.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna nodded in understanding.

She didn’t understand why, but… the sight of those pills made her feel slightly uneasy, and not just the general shape of the things.

“How many times a day?” she asked slowly, glancing up at the doctor through her bangs.

“Once a day will be enough.” Dr. Kondou answered with a smile before a knock on the door interrupted them.

A woman was standing in the doorway, holding up a plastic, soft-looking package.

“Oh yes,” Dr. Kondou expressed, stepping forward to take the package from the woman. “Thank you.” and just like that, the woman left, not really paying any attention to Tsuna.

Dr. Kondou turned back to the teenage girl, holding out the package towards her.

“We thought you might want to have these back.”

Putting the bottles on the bed, Tsuna slowly slid off of the bed, stepping up to take the package from the doctor’s hands.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Dr. Kondou said, bidding goodbye before she turned right around and left the room, leaving Tsuna standing there in the center of it with a package in her arms.

Tsuna shrugged to herself before carefully opening the package, folding the plastic open to reveal, her uniform. The uniform she’d been wearing when she’d been shot, only they had been perfectly washed, mended, and folded.

Of course, her mother hadn’t allowed Tsuna to remain in the hospital robes for very long, seeing as they barely covered any of her skin, and so, her mother had been a perfect saint and had come to the hospital with a couple of changes, so right this moment, Tsuna was in a large orange sweater over a white cotton tank-top with jeans shorts and white cotton stockings.

Cotton was one of the few things that didn't bother her skin.

However, there was one thing missing to her outfit.

One thing that she positively couldn’t live without.

Furiously, Tsuna dug through the package until her hands finally folded around the thick golden chain, a sigh of relief escaping her as she pulled out a pendant of sorts. The pendant itself was a smaller replica of the sigil on the cover of her sketch-book, a matching pair that she’d gotten from her father last Yule.

She never went anywhere without this pendant if she had anything to say about it.

She let the rest of the package drop to the floor, allowing herself the moment to simply relish in the feel of the small pendant in the palm of her hand, the touch of it under her fingertips before she hung it around her neck, smiling as the cold metal landed between her collarbones.

Truthfully, she’d almost felt naked without it.

She recalled the pills with great reluctance.

Slowly, she turned around, staring at the two bottles lying among the sheets.

Truly, they were mocking her with their existence, not to mention the almost haunting feeling she got just by looking at them. But, she wanted to be rid of her handicap, she wanted to get better, so she walked up, plucked up the two bottles from the bed, desperately pushing down the uneasy feeling as she dropped one pill from each bottle into her hand and proceeded to shove them into her mouth, washing them down with the cup of water that had just been waiting for her at the bedside table since a few hours back.

The feeling only got worse as the pills washed down her throat.

The clearing of someone else’s throat knocked her out of her thoughts.

Spinning around, Tsuna couldn’t help but smile slightly at the sight of the star athlete standing in the doorway.

“Hey.” he greeted, though he had this frown on his face.

“Hi.” she greeted back, putting the bottles down on the table.

Yamamoto’s eyes followed the bottles, staring at them for a moment before he turned his attention back to Tsuna.

“What are the pills for?” he asked, stepping further into the room. “I thought you were just days from being released.” his voice carried a hint of worry in it.

“I am,” Tsuna answered casually, plopping herself down onto the bed, showing off just how much the wound wasn’t bothering her anymore. She threw a look at the pills, nodding them as an indicator. “Those are to fix a decade-old problem.”

Yamamoto frowned slightly, dropping his bag to the floor as he himself collapsed into the visitor’s chair, looking at her intently.

“What kind of problem?”

Tsuna had to think for a moment.

Could she tell Yamamoto? Would it be a smart thing to do so? He probably would feel terribly guilty once the news was brought to light, but he just looked so expectant…

Finally, she sighed.

“There was this part of my brain that absolutely refused to develop when I was younger,” she said, motioning with her finger around her head as she watched Yamamoto’s eyes widening just a fraction. “It made it so that whenever I tried to set my mind on something, I would either lose all form of balance or completely shatter my ability to think straight,” she said, trying to make her voice sound as nonchalant as possible.

Yamamoto’s hand flew up, stopping her from trying to brush off this news as though they were nothing.

“Wait...” he asked, voice surprisingly low as he looked at the floor.

She did wait, staring at the athlete expectantly, somehow knowing exactly what he was going to say.

“So if you were to take a test...” he started off slowly, his words rolling out of his mouth almost hesitantly, fearing that Tsuna’s reaction would be, which was a quick one.

“Brain turns into scrambled eggs,” she answered easily, turning around to fetch the folded sketch off of the bedside table.

“And if you were to pay attention to how you were walking...” Yamamoto continued, even slower than before, voice sounding a pitch darker than she’d ever heard it.

“Automatic face-plant,” Tsuna replied, acting as though it wasn’t that big a deal.

Slowly, Yamamoto rose from his chair.

“So you mean to tell me that...” his voice was little more than a hateful growl as he stared down at Tsuna, eyes somehow portraying the interesting mix of shock and absolute anger at the same time. “The whole school has been bullying you...” his hands fell on either side of Tsuna’s tiny body on the bed, her staring up at him as his voice rose. “Because of a handicap!” had Tsuna been any other person, she probably would have flinched.

But Tsuna wasn’t any other person.

Not only was she accustomed to people screaming in her face, she was also more than used to angry people invading her personal bubble. She just tilted her head to the side, quickly thinking over the words the athlete had just spewed.

“Pretty much.” she nodded.

For a long moment, Yamamoto just stares at her, confused at her indifferent expression.

Groaning, the athlete plopped down on top of the bed, staring at his wrists as he buried his forehead into the palms of his hands.

“You have been bullied for something you couldn’t control...” he grumbled, forcing Tsuna to strain her ears in order to properly hear him. “And you just sit there as if it doesn’t matter?” he glanced at her from the corner of her eye, watching as she fiddles with a piece of folded paper.

“I’ve gotten used to it.” she shrugged, eyes pinned on the things in her hands.

Yamamoto buried his face into his hands, letting out a series of incoherent grumbles muffled by the palms of his hands, the self-hatred practically radiating off of him.

Finally, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs before he allowed his forearms to fall over his knees.

“I’m so, so sorry Sawada,” he mumbled, refusing to look at her.

It was Tsuna’s turn to sigh, shaking her head as she scooted over to the athlete.

“Don’t be,” she said, putting her tiny hand on his shoulder. “You haven’t done anything.”

This didn’t cheer Yamamoto up at all.

Shooting back up to his feet, the athlete threw his hands into the air, angrily spinning around towards the petite girl settled on top of the bed.

“But I should have!”

Rolling her eyes, Tsuna got off of the bed, her sock covered feet moving over the tiled floor towards the athlete as she held out the folded sketch out towards him.

“For you,” she stated, throwing the paper a brief glance before looking him right in the eye.

Obviously still angry with himself, Yamamoto almost snatched the paper from her, keeping his eyes firmly locked onto her hidden ones as he folded it up, only tearing them away once he had it straightened out in front of him.

And what he saw froze him in place.

It was him.

Or, to be more accurate, it was a pencil portrait of him.

Expertly made, confident lines, shadows that fell in the most realistic manner he had ever seen in a drawing before, and seeing that their class did have a few students in the Artistic division he’d seen quite a few drawings over the few weeks they’ve been in high-school, and yet… this one pencil sketch had more life than any of them…

Not to mention the fact that the few portraits of him he'd seen before had been sketches of him looking princely or even depicted as fairytale knights, all sporting his well known cheerful smiles and more often than now sporting a partner at his side in the form of the artist, his favorite ones had been the sketches of him on the baseball pitch simply because it was a realistic setting, even if the scene usually made it appear as though he was the only one playing against an opposing team all on his own.

Sawada's however...

It was just him, him sitting in a chair dressed in his school uniform, looking as though he'd collapsed into it after having dashed into the room.

His hair was all over the place, his shirt was askew with a sheen of perspiration clear on his skin, the expression on his face showing obvious fatigue.

It was the least perfect portrayal of him he had ever seen, she'd even included the barely visible mole on his neck.

Speechless, Takeshi looked back up at Sawada.

“Wha-?” he couldn’t find the words to express what he was currently feeling.

“It’s your birthday isn’t it?” Sawada just stated in a question, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Takeshi could only nod, mouth partially open and eyes wide. “It’s the best I could make when still locked up in here but...” her tiny hand moved up to brush some hair behind her ear in the familiar nervous habit Takeshi had become quite used to seeing the last couple of weeks.

He looked back at the drawing, and sure enough, at the bottom right-hand corner was something written in minute, flowing handwriting.

_Happy Sweet 16_

For a moment, Takeshi just stood there, staring at the writing. Slowly, hand found it’s way over his mouth, a breath sucked in through his nose as the gesture thoroughly registered.

Sawada Tsunako… the school's most bullied girl, with a (to him) newly discovered function handicap that he had done little to nothing to try and help for as long as they had shared the same class, and yet here she was, giving him a hand-drawn portrait of himself for his birthday. A portrait that she’d obviously spent a lot of time on if the detail was anything to by.

Not that Takeshi knew that much about art, to begin with.

But...

All the detail...

All the little details others would find unflattering...

She'd included them all, and as he looked at the drawing, he couldn't help but find that when formed by her hand, his little less-than-attractive features looked like the most flattering aspects about him.

She saw him...

Taking down his hand, Takeshi turned to Sawada again.

“Why?” he asked, voice shaking slightly.

Sawada just shrugged.

“You’re a good person.” she stated with the most steady voice he’s heard her speak with. “Why shouldn’t I?”

What happened next, Tsuna still couldn’t quite wrap her head around.

She’d just been standing there one second, looking at Yamamoto as though that alone would help him understand just how genuine she was. The next thing she knew, her face was pressed into said athlete’s muscled chest, strong arms wrapped around her small frame as Yamamoto Takeshi hugged her close to him.

It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, it was just a hug and they shouldn’t hug, but Tsuna still found herself squirming a little in discomfort, her skin burning where the athlete’s skin made contact with hers.

He must have noticed her discomfort, for he put his hands on her shoulders, gently pushing her away from him so that he could look at her face with determination in his eyes.

“I promise you Sawada...” he spoke, voice steady and deep. “When you come back to school, it will be much better.”

Tsuna couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her mouth.

“Yamamoto-san...” she didn’t get to finish the thought.

“TSU-CHA-!” Nana’s scream was cut short the second she’d burst into her daughter’s hospital room, only to freeze once she noticed that her daughter wasn’t alone in there. And what a sight it must have been, her almost sixteen-year-old daughter standing in front of an admittedly handsome young man who happened to have his hands on her shoulders, both of whom were looking at the woman in wide-eyed shock.

Nana blinked a few times before a small smirk formed on her lips.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Tsuna narrowed her eyes at the tone her mother was using.

It was WAY too suggestive for her comfort.

Yamamoto removed his hands from Tsuna’s shoulders.

“Not at all,” he stated, turning his attention back to the younger Sawada woman, optioning to put his hands on top of her head, ruffling her hair slightly. “I’ll see you when you get back to school then?” he asked, meeting her eyes.

“Yeah.” Tsuna nodded, knocking his hand away from her head.

Yamamoto bowed his head swiftly to Nana before he disappeared out the door.

The women stared at the doorway for a moment, Tsuna mentally counting the seconds, before Nana almost frantically spun around towards her daughter.

“What was that?” the woman asked excitedly.

“What was what?” Tsuna asked, turning to sit back down on top of the bed.

“Tsu-chan...” Nana almost giggled as she said her daughter’s nickname. “That handsome young man just had his hands on your shoulders.” she pointed a slender finger towards the door. “What was that about?”

Tsuna sighed heavily.

Figures her mother would get caught up on that...

She was well aware that her mother knew who Yamamoto was, apparently, he’d come over after school ended the day she’d gotten shot and he’d given her the contact to his family’s sushi-shop to call when Tsuna woke up.

Still… she didn’t like the look her mother was giving her.

“He was feeling guilty about my previous school life.” She explained, picking up her sketch-book again, leaning back against the pillows as she set to run the tip of her pencil over the first blank page. “He was saying something about...” she waver her hand in the air, as though trying to decide on the right words. “Making sure I will have a better time in school when I return or… something.”

Nana only seemed to giggle even more energetically.

Tsuna sighed again.

Sometimes… dealing with her mother was a real chore.

Looking up from the sketch slowly forming on the page in front of her, Tsuna gave her mother a hard look.

“What did you want?”

It took a moment before Nana realized what her daughter meant.

“Right.” She said, walking up and sitting down in front of her daughter. “I’ve been thinking...”

Tsuna would have raised an eyebrow if she was actually capable of doing so, instead, she furrowed them in suspicion.

“Yes?”

“We’ve got plenty of room in our house...” Nana continued, looking straight into the air. “Why don’t we put up a room for rent?” she asked. “Extra money, and more people at our overly large kitchen table.”

Tsuna thought about it for a moment, biting her lip as she did.

Finally, she let out a light groan.

“Alright, why not?”

* * *

Tsuna had been brought into a different room, one that she’d never been in before, but that didn’t say much as she hasn’t exactly spent that much time in the hospital. Okay, so she has spent a lot of time in a hospital, but not with open injuries.

“Please lie down on the table.” the doctor instructed her, motioning towards a dentist-like chair.

Tsuna really couldn’t do much else than do what was asked of her, awkwardly settling down into the chair and watched as the female doctor pulled out a test-tube filled with something that looked to be some kind of powder.

“This is a skin sample we took from you during the operation.” she described as she moved towards a large, square, shiny machine at the corner of the room. “We’ve had it dried for easier access,” she said, twisting the lid off of the tube.

Tsuna watched as the doctor opened a compartment in the machine.

“I’m going to put this in this machine,” she said, sliding the tube into one of the multiple holes the open compartment now revealed, closing it before turning towards Tsuna with a smile. “And it will create a roll of skin-grafting for you.” with that said, she hit a button on the machine and it immediately roared to life.

This made Tsuna frown.

“Why am I lying down then?” she asked.

The doctor chuckled at her question, stepping up to the chair in order to adjust a mirror hanging over Tsuna’s body, ensuring that it was placed at an angle that allowed her to see her stomach whilst still lying down.

“Easier for me to show you how to apply it.” the doctor answered, smiling down at her.

At that moment, the machine stopped the low humming. It had only been humming for about half a minute, a light fitted at the top of a larger compartment door lighting up a bright green color.

“There we go.”

The woman opened the compartment to take out a roll of bio-material about the general size of toilet paper.

Tsuna had always wanted to see bio-material, how it worked differently from bio-fabric what with it being made especially for your biological makeup and could only be reached through hospitals and not your everyday convenience store.

The woman smiled as she turned back to Tsuna, the roll in hand.

“Please raise your shirt for me.”

Nodding, Tsuna set up a bit to easier roll the fabric up, allowing her to finally see what that bullet had done to her stomach.

It wasn’t a lot of damage, just a small scar that was a bit bigger than what the entrance hole had been before she’d gotten to the hospital because they had to get the blank out. Thankfully, there was no damage done to her internal organs, the only real threat had been how much she’d been bleeding at the time.

The stitches were still there, and that was why she was getting the grafting.

The woman pulled out a strip from the roll.

“You cut this off,” she said, picking up just a regular pair of scissors and cutting off a square piece of the roll. “Remove the tape.” she set the roll down on a table next to the chair so that she could handle the square with both of her hands, pulling off a white piece of paper, leaving her with a thin piece of what looked to be synthetic skin. “And gently apply it over the injury.” the touch of the woman’s gentle fingers was uncomfortable for Tsuna, but she watched with great interest as the woman spread the square out over the stitched up hole in her stomach. “Easy.”

As the woman stepped away from her, Tsuna could see as the material immediately blended in seamlessly with the rest of her skin, leaving little more than the illusion of flawless skin in its place.

Hesitantly, she prodded at the spot, not even able to feel the stitching under the soft, skin substitute.

“It always blend like that?” she asked.

“Yes.” the doctor said, coming back from having thrown the paper in the garbage, picking up the roll and stuffing it inside a plastic bag. “It will peel off in its own in 24 hours,” she explained, putting the bag in Tsuna’s hands. “Apply a new one when this happens to keep the wound from straining.”

Tsuna nodded slowly.

“Thank you,” she said, reaching into the bag to feel the roll itself, and to her, it was incredibly strange. She kept fingering the material even as the two women stepped out of the room.

“Remember.” the woman started, catching Tsuna’s attention. “It’s just an extra layer of protection for that injury.” she motioned with her hand towards Tsuna’s abdomen. “It doesn’t make you invincible.” her eyes were narrowed in seriousness. “You still need to take it easy.”

“Understood.” Tsuna nodded, running her thumb over the material, genuinely surprised when her thumb didn’t completely melt into it as it had done against her stomach.

Bag in hand, Tsuna returned to the room assigned to her, the counter to when she can finally go home starting off in her head.

Soon, she told herself.

Soon.

* * *

_ **April 26** _

_ **Sunday 2215** _

A tall, lean man dressed in an expensive black suit strode down the roads of Italy, his fedora shadowing his eyes but a content smirk was playing on his lips as he fingered his tablet, seemingly absorbed by the article he was reading.

He was a very handsome man, capturing the attention of almost the entire female population that he passed, even those that were obviously on dates with their significant others, and thus, he also pissed off a lot of people. He was well aware of this fact, he was used to it, and if anything, it only made him smirk even more.

He moved his screen into his pocket, keeping both his hands hidden as he strode confidently into the pub he’d been aiming for during his walk, not even bothering to spare a glance at the figure following him.

Throwing up the doors of the pup, all activity inside stopped as they all turned to stare at the new arrival.

Two suited men smirked at the sight of him.

“Oh, so you’re here?” one of the men greeted, raising his shot glass towards the man. “Got yourself a new assignment have you?”

“Ay.” the man confirmed with a sharp nod, his deep voice booming over the silence as he confidently strode into the building.

“Where is it now?” the other man asked, glancing at the man from the corner of his eye. “Rome? Venice?”

“Japan.” the man answered casually, never even taking his hands out of his pockets.

“Japan!?” the two men immediately reacted, looks of shock plastered over their faces as they turned fully towards the man.

“That old man finally managed to make the lion give in?”

The man allowed himself a light chuckle at the sight of their reactions.

The man behind the counter set down a shot of amber liquid in front of the man.

“Looks like I’m in for a long trip.” he mused, long fingers picking up the shot and downing it with little effort.

At that moment, the shadow that had followed the man decided to finally step out, a knife raised high above his head as he let out a loud cry, bringing down the knife, going in for the kill.

It didn’t quite happen the way he’d imagined it.

The knife had barely come within an inch of the man’s neck before it was suddenly knocked out of his hand, the bones in his wrist snapping, and the very next second, the wannabe-assassin was lying on the floor, twitching in pain as he clutched at his broken wrist, screaming in pain as he started up at the man, eyes full of fear.

All the man did was smirk, downing another shot.

Oh, he was going to have fun in Japan, that much was clear.

* * *

_ **April 27** _

_ **Monday 2215** _

It was the day she’d been waiting for.

Tsuna was standing in the reception of the hospital, a light bag hanging from her shoulder as she waited for Dr. Kondou. The doctor had gone to schedule Tsuna for a time at a local therapist, something Tsuna had completely forgotten that she’d probably need as she has been shot in the stomach.

Shifting from one foot to the other, Tsuna raised herself on the tip of her toes, relishing in the unnatural amount of balance she now possessed. Of course, she’d been banned from participating in any form of physical classes, including her ballet lessons, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t practice the basics in her bedroom to keep her flexibility and the strength in her leg and back muscles. She didn’t want to return to ballet classes after summer vacation and find that she’s even more useless in the art that she’s ever been before.

She didn’t look composed at all, what with all the restless energy that had been building up inside her during the time she’d spent locked up in the building.

“Sawada-san!” Dr. Kondou called out as he finally arrived in the lobby, making both women turn towards him as he approached them, a smile on his face. “I’ve got the time,” he said, holding out his tablet, ready to transfer the information.

“I don’t feel as though I need it,” Tsuna said as she reluctantly pulled her alexandrite-type gem from her pocket.

Dr. Kondou just laughed as he transferred the info.

Just to be safe, Tsuna activated an alarm for the event, setting it to the day before just to make sure that she didn’t forget it.

It wouldn’t do if she did.

“Let the therapist decide that, alright?” he put his hand on her shoulder, lowering himself down to look into her eyes at a more equal level. “You take care of yourself.” his eyes narrowed as he held up a finger in front of her case as though he were scolding a child. “Remember,” he even changed the tone of his voice to fit his demeanor. “No ballet.”

Tsuna rolled her eyes at his words.

“I know,” she responded.

“Tsu-chan.” Nana’s voice spoke up from behind Tsuna’s back, making both the doctor and the daughter turn around towards her.

“Mom.” Tsuna breathed, letting her hands clench around the straps on her bag. “You’re late.”

“I know,” Nana answered with a deep breath, letting her hand run over her daughter’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.” suddenly, her face spread into a wide, almost victorious smile. “Your shelves arrived an hour ago.”

Tsuna’s eyes widened.

“Really?” she couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice.

Happily, Nana nodded, rubbing her hands over her daughter's arms.

Unfortunately, the doctor had to ruin their moment.

“You’re officially signed out of our system,” he stated with a smile, gesturing with his screen before that mischievous smile once again returned to his face, she was seriously starting to get tired of that smile. “Please do not make us register you back in again.”

She sighed heavily, hands still clasped around the strap of her bag.

“I’ll try not to.”

The doctor just kept smiling.

“Keep shining.” he threw the women’s way with a point, a goodbye term Tsuna had no idea how it came to be. She dislikes answering it due to how cheesy she found it.

Thankfully, Nana saved her from doing that.

“Brightly,” she replied, pointing right back with a smile as she turned Nana around towards the hospital doors.

“Why do we say that again?” Tsuna found herself whispering, her mother's hands still on her shoulders as they finally stepped out of that dreadful building.

“Don’t question culture Sweetheart.” came Nana’s immediate answer, giving her daughter's shoulder a squeeze before they separated, walking about a foot away from one another, allowing the younger Sawada woman to reach into her bag to pull out the bottles of pills.

She couldn’t help herself.

There was still just something about them that rubbed her the wrong way.

* * *

Nana had said that Tsuna's long-since ordered storage space had arrived, and now, they were standing in her bedroom, waiting to be put together and be filled with what more than likely still lay scattered all over her floor back home.

Standing in front of her bedroom door, Tsuna felt somewhat uncomfortable, wondering whether or not she would actually open the door and face the mess she knew would great her on the other side. It just would feel right after having been locked up in the all-too-clean hospital for as long as she had. The mess that she'd gotten so used to before would now most likely feel so much worse than it ever has.

She stared at the nameplate she'd made a few years ago, frowning slightly at the glittering lines her eleven-year-old self had probably thought of as pretty. It looked as though that too was due for a change.

Finally, she shook her head, banishing her foreboding notions and decided to just get it over with.

With that thought, she put her hand on the handle of the door and practically shoved the large slab of wood open.

Each step up the stairs had been heavier than the one before, until finally, she stood at the top of the stairs, facing the mess that she'd lived in for the past three years.

Just like she had expected, the mess felt immense.

The piles of used papers, dirty clothes, and other knick-knacks felt so much larger than how they had felt the last time she had seen them.

However…

Slowly, she turned her attention to the series of different-sized boxes that stood in the middle of the room, the mess that had previously been there having been viciously shoved away so that the boxes wouldn't crush them.

That mess would soon be dealt with.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna dropped her bag to the floor, rolling up the sleeves of her large white cardigan as she marched to the boxes, only sparing a thought to fetch a pair of scissors from on top of her desk (the drawers were full of underwear, socks, and other things that would later find a new home) before she ripped open the cardboard to reach the pale brown wood that made up the shelves and other things she was going to put together.

She didn't even notice the fierce tingling sensation at the tip of her fingers.

Now, Tsuna was by no means an unintelligent young woman. Her test results were nothing to go by, her sense of logic and general level of understanding was quite high. In fact, one of the three motto's she went by was "I don't know a lot of things, but I understand plenty". She understood and followed all the lectures at school perfectly fine, and so, she was able to understand and follow the instructions kept within the boxes equally perfectly fine.

Truth be told, it wasn't the first time she'd have to put furniture together on her own, what with her father not being around and all.

Within a couple of hours, Tsuna had put together the shelves, the standing ones as well as the ones she was to screw onto the walls. Seeing as she had two shelves of the same height, she used them to help her raise the larger wall-mounted shelves before tightly screwing them in place. With the shelves in place, she moved around everything else to where she wanted them, screwing them in place as well. The last thing she needed to mount was the smaller shelves and organization above her desk, leaning back when she was done.

It was strange, seeing so many empty shelves and drawers all around the room.

If someone had stepped in right this moment, they would really have believed that Tsuna was a slob, too lazy to put anything where there was room.

She was proud of her work, but then she looked down at her feet, reminding herself that her work had only just behind.

The tingling sensation had now spread to the whole of Tsuna's palms, but she was too busy to register that.

* * *

At 06:48 pm, Nana knocked on her daughter's bedroom with a tray of Juice and an assembly of snacks resting on her left forearm. She didn't wait for an invitation and just walked in.

What met her eyes as she stepped up the stairs, was something she had never expected to see in her daughter's bedroom ever since Tsuna first started buying home seemingly useless things at the start of middle-school.

At the moment, Tsuna was standing in front of a tall cupboard, carefully sliding her finished paintings into place. The piece of furniture was big enough that only half of the thing was filled up, leaving more than enough room for her future works. Nana suspected that Tsuna was only sorting the paintings after the order of which they had been painted right now, but if she knew her daughter, she would probably think of a way to sort them after motive on a later date.

The difference in the room was already quite startling.

All the discarded papers had either been thrown away for being useless or put into binders and folders that were now stacked in bookcases leaning against the wall, Notebooks, diaries, and the mountain of sketch-books were not too far away from them. Maybe they too would be carefully sorted on a later date.

Nana could spot the antique porcelain dolls Tsuna had received for several years sitting on top of a wide wall-mounted shelf, twenty-seven dolls in total, all of varying sizes and makes, although they were all equally beautiful in beautiful dresses and glossy hair more often than not worn in ringlets.

Perhaps that had been why Iemitsu had bought them in the first place.

After all, Tsuna's hair would have been worn in natural ringlets should she actually decide to manage it.

Her daughter had taken great care of the dolls through the years, even though the majority of them had been lost to the mess that had covered the floor.

Looking at the dolls, Nana couldn't help but sweep her eyes over the rest of the bedroom, her gaze locking on the large, white plush bunny with the orange ribbon tied around its neck that Tsuna had had since Nana had first made it for her sixth birthday. It amazed Nana how it had still maintained it's pure white color.

Next to the bunny (whom Nana distinctly remember having been named Shiro), on the bedside table, stood the custom-made music box Iemitsu had designed in a beautiful antique style and would open to reveal a pretty spinning carousel horse when winded up with the strange, golden, crest-like key that Tsuna even now had hanging around her neck.

Her eyes continued, this time landing on the antique tea-set that was an actual real china set from France that Iemitsu had bought for Tsuna when she had been around the age where girl's liked to have tea-parties. It was a miracle that the girl was actually really careful with her father's gifts and so, the most likely very expensive set didn't seem to have a crack on it even as it lay among the sheets on Tsuna's bed.

Nana's eyes moved over Tsuna's desk where they froze again on the small, beautiful, just as antique as the china, decorated silver trinket box that actually had the name Tsuna engraved into the lid from its first owner, Tsuna used the engraving for inspiration whenever she did calligraphy so she didn't mind the name. Nana knew that Tsuna kept something she considered special in that box, it was just that every time Nana had tried to get Tsuna to show her what it was, Tsuna would blatantly refuse her.

It may be because Tsuna herself doesn't even know what the box contains, and is afraid of what memories might resurface should she decide to open it. She'd forgotten it a few years ago.

Continuing with her sweep, her eyes fell on the large mahogany jewelry box that had been temporarily stationed on top of the desk. It's multiple compartments folded out, ready to be filled with the many pieces of jewelry that were most likely scattered all over the room.

That Iemistu and showering Tsu-chan with gifts.

If he's feeling so guilty for not being around then he should just visit, really.

He used to mostly send her toys. Beautiful, antique toys, mostly in the Victorian style or 21st century, until she entered her teen years, at which point he began to send her all types of clothing, jewelry, allergy-safe makeup, shoes, accessories. Everything a teenage girl could ever wish for, all carefully tailored to the measurements Nana had sent over.

The only reason he knew to send her allergy-safe make-up being that he too shared that same allergy.

One would think that all of these gifts would make her little girl spoiled, but not Tsuna. It may have been due to how everyone outside of her home was treating her, but Tsuna barely thought about herself at all.

Most of the toys that Iemitsu had sent were now packed away in the basement. Like that large, beautiful, antique Victorian doll-house with the realistic furniture and dolls, and the surprisingly large assortment of clothes for said dolls. Or that beautiful rocking-horse that had been shaped like a beautiful white mere with actual horsehair for a tail and mane.

It was a shame that they had to be packed away, but Tsuna felt that they would take too much place in her room (even though Nana could see that Tsuna hasn't wanted to pack away all of her toys either) and so, they were gathering dust in the basement at the moment.

Perhaps when Tsuna gets married and has her own little girls, those things would be played with once more.

She knew her daughter would marry one day, whilst they didn't talk tall that much anymore, they had had a few more meaningful conversations over the years, especially after she'd entered puberty. also, if her daughter one day discovered she was asexual or aromantic, she would just come out and tell her one day as she teases her about finding a partner. The only thing she really knew for certain, was that her daughter did identify as at least Heteroromantic, so she knew that when her daughter eventually do start seeing someone, it would be a male.

The thought of her daughter starting her own family with a kind, intelligent young man made Nana feel equally happy as she dreaded the wedding she was sure would happen one day.

She trusted her daughter, she was too good a judge of character to get into a relationship with someone that would become a stalker should she break up with them, or even stay in a relationship she can tell is starting to fall apart.

And so, an intelligent young man that treated her daughter as though she were their world was the best option that Nana could think of.

Nana couldn't help but smile at her daughter's bedroom, even though accessories, make-up, shoes, and clothing were still scattered all over the floor (she really should get her her own laundry-basket), the room looked a hundred percent better than it had done when Nana had led the delivery men into the room.

The room itself screamed teenager by the flat TV hung on top of the wall and the laptop sitting next to the jewelry box, not to mention the full-body mirror practically covered by discarded garments. But the things she kept for decoration showed that she had a certain level of innocence left from her childhood years.

Not only on the toys.

Even though her daughter's favorite color was and probably would forever remain as orange, she had told Nana that too much orange over an extended period of time would only serve to make her eventually hate the color, and thus, Tsuna had optioned to decorate her room in the softer colors, pastels, the colors that the publicly owned buildings were painted in to keep your eyes from being blinded.

She was an artistic child after all.

Buying her own rugs and curtains, sheets and covers. Nana knew there was even an assortment of wall paints in the room somewhere that was to be opened once Tsuna had everything in order.

Tsuna had even deliberately ordered shelves that weren't lacquered so that she may paint them as well as the room once she was done.

"I like what you've done with the place," Nana remarked as she stepped over the hair-brush her daughter had probably long-since forgotten ever existed, making her way towards the bed.

Tsuna closed the doors of the cupboard, turning towards her mother as she made to sit down on the cushion covered chest standing at the foot of the bed. The one filled with curtains, sheets, covers, and embroidered handkerchiefs so it was absolutely useless for any other storage).

"Actual storage space does make it easier." The teenager breathed, frowning as she finally registered the tingling in her hands, trying to diminish the sensation by brushing them against her jeans. It was like the tingling you get when a limb is waking up only… hotter (temperature-wise).

"You going to gather up the jewelry now?" Nana asked, nodding towards the gaping jewelry-box.

Tsuna had received that thing for her fifteenth birthday, only by that time her jewelry was already terribly scattered all over her room and she had just, never bothered to look for them through the mess.

Now, however, searching for the glimmering pieces of metal and gemstones (both fake and real) would be so much easier. In fact, she could already spot about twenty of them with a quick look around the floor.

"That's the plan," Tsuna replied with what could only be described as a sigh of surrender.

From one task that required a lot of lifting and stretching, she would directly move on to a task that required a lot of bending down.

Who knew cleaning could be such a workout?

Well, at least it would help her keep her leg muscles in shape.

Nana, who had apparently noticed her daughter's exhausted expression, twisted herself around where she was sitting and reached over to the tray to pick up the glass of clear pear juice. Standing up, she held the glass up to the tired-looking teenager.

"How about a little break first?" she asked gently with a warm smile. "Wouldn't want you to end up back at the hospital when I've just got you back home now would we?"

Tsuna smiled gratefully at her mother, taking the glass from her hand.

The cold liquid had chilled the glass, cooling down her still tingling fingers, and Tsuna couldn't help the relieved sigh escaping her lips at the feel of the cold.

Wait a second… was that… sizzling?

Eyes shooting down to her hand, Tsuna thought, for a split second, that she saw a light, almost invisible mist steaming up from where her fingers touched the glass, but the second she blinked, it was gone.

Along with the tingling.

"Is something wrong?" Nana asked, succeeding in snapping her daughter out of her thoughts.

Looking up at her mother, Tsuna hesitated for a second before slowly shaking her head.

"No," she answered, looking back at the glass. "Nothing at all."

Brushing off what she'd seen as her overworked mind playing tricks on her, Tsuna brought the glass up to her lips, downing as much as she could in one go.

Thankfully, her mother had brought a whole pitcher of the thing so Tsuna didn't have to save anything.

The liquid was a little more… room temperature than the coolness of the glass had led her to believe, but it still worked wonders in unwinding her over-worked body.

The sweet taste of the juice brought a smile to Tsuna's mouth. That particular type of juice has always had that power, ever since she was a baby and it had been the first thing she had tasted that wasn't breast-milk or formula (at least, according to Nana). The liquid didn't have any added sugar or sweetening so it was alright for a seven-month-old baby to drink, and little baby Tsuna had absolutely loved it.

Seeing Tsuna's reaction, Nana reached out her hand to stroke her daughter over her terribly messy hair.

The woman frowned for a moment. She remembered when she had been the one to take care of the girl's hair, stars how beautiful it had been then, shining in the sunlight as if it had been spun out of gold, curling into those adorable ringlets that Nana had loved to put up into silk ribbons.

Then, the hair had gotten longer, thicker, and maintaining them became more like plowing through a field before sowing than the calming process Nana remembered, and before either of the women knew it, it had become a bird's nest.

"You should really do something about this." Nana murmured, letting her fingers pinch the tips of Tsuna's hair, stroking them between her fingers.

It still shocked Nana just how close to the same height the two of them were.

This earned the woman an eye-roll from her daughter.

Brushing off her mother's hand, Tsuna downed the remaining liquid in the glass.

"Not now." She groaned. "Too much to do."

Nana sighed heavily, putting her hands on her hips.

"Alright." She gave. "But after you're done, I want you to take a long shower young lady." She almost raised her finger in mock scolding.

"Alright." Was the only reply she got.

Tsuna put the glass down, stretching a little, listening with satisfaction as a few of her joints clicked before she proceeded to push her mother out of the room.

"Now goodbye."

The woman stopped herself in the doorway by grabbing hold of the framed, turning her head around to look at her daughter from the corner of her eye.

"Don't forget to brush your hair."

"I know." Tsuna groaned, pushing at her mother's back with a bit more force. "I'm not a child anymore, remember?"

"I know you're not honey, but-" she didn't get to finish her sentence as she last shove from Tsuna caused her to lose her grip on the door-frames and she almost tumbled into the hallway, turning around just in time to see her daughter shut the door behind her.

"You're still my daughter." Nana finished in the silence of the hallway.

Really, their house was way too big for just the two of them.

She couldn't wait for the new guest to arrive.

Wait… had she forgotten to tell Tsuna about him?

* * *

On the other side of the door, Tsuna forced herself back up the steps, stopping at the top to look over what remained of the mess.

“Alright floor,” she muttered, brushing her filthy bangs from her face, a fire burning behind her light brown eyes. The strange tingling feeling in her hands returning. “It’s about time you showed yourself.”


	4. Reboyama Kidou

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning to school

_ **May 1** _

_ **Friday 2215** _

Whilst Tsuna had been released to return home, she was basically grounded for another week before she could return to the army of hormonal carnivores that was the student body.

And so, there she was, sitting on her bed and absentmindedly running her pen over a blank paper in her sketchbook.

Her room looked very different than it had been for several years. For one, you could actually see the soft grass-green carpet that had been hidden under the mess, and for another, she’d painted the walls in  a base color of different shades of turquoise, creating a beautiful forest of fantastical trees with curled branches . It wasn’t just the walls she’d painted though, she’d also painted the shelves, cupboards, and cases, blending them into the walls the best she could. The only thing she didn’t paint was the organization above the desk, the desk itself, and of course, the bed.

This paint-job was just the start though, she had several details planned for a later date, but it would have to wait until she had a clear picture in her head and had them outlined on the wall before she attempted anything with a brush.

She didn't want to ruin all her hard work.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she caught sight of her doodles from the corner of her eye.

The whole page was littered with strange… symbols.

Hard lines, soft lines, curved and swirly lines, making up strange… rune-like figures. Or maybe they were more like hieroglyphs that were trying to be secretive about what they really looked like.

Tsuna had been frowning, turning the sketch-book from angle to angle in front of her eyes when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Tsuna called, still looking at the doodles as her mother walked up the steps.

Nana didn't have to say anything, she didn’t even have to look up from her sketchbook, Tsuna had a rather good idea about what she wanted to tell her.

"Sakura call again?"

Really, that woman was a walking land-mine, one move in the wrong direction and she just explodes in a fit of panicked cries and calls Nana even though there are other competent employees at the Crescent bakery.

Her mother nodded with a sigh, her hair already pulled up into a bun.

"I'll probably be gone for a few hours." She said slowly, "Which means that I probably won't be back in time before the guest arrives."

Tsuna almost dropped her sketchbook, whipping her head around to look at her mother, her eyes wide open in shock.

"What guest?" she asked, voice almost frantic.

Nana's face broke into a look of realization, her hand flying up to slap herself on the forehead.

"I knew I had forgotten to tell you something!" she exclaimed, taking a deep breath as she let her hands fall on her hips, eyes locked onto the newly cleaned floor.

After a moment, she looked up at her daughter.

"A young man called to rent the room just a day after I put out the notice." She explained. "He'll be arriving in one, maybe two hours, so… you think you could let him in in my place?"

For a moment, Tsuna just sat there, shocked that her mother's notice had gotten a reply that quickly.

Sighing heavily, Tsuna picked her sketchbook back up from the mattress.

"Fine." She breathed.

"Thank you," Nana said before she slipped out of the room, leaving her daughter to her doodles.

* * *

Tsuna could have sworn that she'd just been doodling for about half an hour when the sound of the doorbell echoed through the house. Though, when she checked the time, she saw that it really had been almost three hours.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna pulled herself away from the bed and marched down the two sets of stairs down to the hallway, immediately freezing at the tall, shadowed figure on the other side of the tinted window fitted into the front door. The most she could tell about the figure was that it was wearing some sort of hat.

Squaring her shoulder, Tsuna continued the remaining steps to the door and opened it slowly.

The man on the other side of the door was, without a doubt, a foreigner. Tall, lean, but with notable muscle-mass under what Tsuna suspected was a rather expensive black suit. His face was sharp, with pointed features and naturally narrowed impossibly dark lifeless eyes. The only thing that didn't look prim and proper about this man was his ruffled hair, visible under the shining black fedora on top of his head. Tsuna mentally cursed.

He's hot.

A dark chuckle escaped the stranger, and it was at that moment that Tsuna realized.

He had been studying her too.

"Sawada Nana?" the man questioned, his bass voice booming through the foyer.

Snorting without humor, Tsuna met the man's eyes.

"What do you think?"

The man chuckled at her reaction.

"Sawada Tsunako then?" he asked, putting his hands into his pockets. "Are you usually like this when meeting strangers?"

Tsuna shifted her weight from one foot to another.

"No." she answered swiftly. "But you don't really know me, so it's fine." She sighed, glancing down at the flood before meeting the man's eyes again. "You the new guest?"

If the smirk could have gotten wider, it just did.

The man lifted his hat from his head, putting it against his chest and bowed deep for the tiny girl in front of him.

"Reboyama Kidou, at your service." Straightening himself out, he dropped the hat back on top of his surprisingly messy hair. "I'm going to be the teacher of a new optional course at your school starting next week."

"Right…" Tsuna sighed, not really caring.

She liked her school schedule as it was, she didn't want to add another course to it.

Shaking her head, she jerked her head into the house.

"I'll show you to your room."

Even though Tsuna hadn't been aware that the man was even arriving, Nana and Tsuna had decided on which room to give to the rental guest, and their choice had been the first door on the left at the top of the second floor. It was a medium-sized room with a small balcony, painted in neutral colors of beige and green, it had a bed, a desk, a closet, and an empty bookcase, not to mention Tsuna's absolute favorite part about the room.

It was the one furthest away from the attic door.

Her room.

Tsuna returned to her doodling as she led the way up the staircase, running her pencil over the symbols that just continued to fill up the paper.

She'd just reached the top of the stairs when she suddenly realized, her sketchbook wasn't in her hands anymore.

With the grace of a ballet dancer, Tsuna spun around to the teacher, finding him standing a few steps below her, eyes moving over the open page of her sketchbook, a look of mixed shock and confusion etched into his eyebrows.

For a long moment, Tsuna stared at the man in front of her.

He had snatched that book from her hands so fast that her brain hadn't had the time to register it going missing…

Just who was this man?

The man finally raised his gaze to look at her.

"Have you seen these symbols before?" he asked, sounding almost accusing.

Tsuna frowned at the tone of his voice.

“No, they’re just doodles,” she answered, taking her sketchbook back from his hands. She looked over the symbols again before glancing at the man. “What?” she asked. “Have you seen them before?”

Reboyama-sensei looked at her for a long moment, obviously going through his answer in his head.

He didn't get the chance to answer her as the front door opened.

"Tsu-chan! I'm home." Nana called out as she stepped into the house.

Seeing the teacher turn around to greet her mother, Tsuna decided to take the opportunity to slip away, the mere presence of the man sending an uncomfortable sensation through her entire body.

"Sawada-san," Reboyama called out as Tsuna's hand landed on her door handle, forcing her to pause as she turned her head just the tiniest bit in his direction, showing that she was listening. "I would hope that you think about joining my class in the future."

For a moment, Tsuna just stood there.

Then, she opened her door and disappeared up to her bedroom.

* * *

_ **May 4** _

_ **Monday 2215** _

Tsuna stood in front of her mirror, the front of her blouse pulled up as she gently cleaned the skin around the stitches on her stomach, trying to ignore the feel of the blemish every time her fingers brushed over it.

Groaning slightly, she reached for the bio-material roll, cutting off a square and carefully applied it over the wound.

As always, she watched with interest as the material blended in with her skin, leaving behind the unblemished skin she would rather have in place of the stitched-up wound.

"What happened?"

The voice had come so suddenly that it took all of Tsuna's training among her fellow students to not let out a scream as she spun around, almost jamming her blouse down.

"Do you knock?!" she almost screamed, staring at the foreigner.

The teacher has lived in their house for two whole days now, and so far all he had done is make Tsuna all the more suspicious with his presence. She'd lost count of how many times she'd heard the man either hint or outright suggest that she should sign up for his future course.

The more he insisted she should, the less interested she was.

Reboyama only gave her an incredulous look, motioning with a hand towards her stomach.

"What happened?" he asked again.

Tsuna let out a sigh, readjusting her blouse as she turned back towards the mirror.

"A misadventure with a prop-gun loaded with blanks," Tsuna answered with a sigh, walking over to her desk where her bag was waiting for her, trying to ignore the teacher's gaze drilling into her back.

She didn't need to see the man to know the question brewing in his mind.

The man was shrouded in a veil of mystery, and Yet… certain things about him were rather easy to read.

Threading her arm through the straps of her bag, Tsuna turned around towards the teacher.

"Why are you here?" she asked, giving the teacher a rather bored look. "If you're a teacher, aren't you supposed to be at school before I am?" she waved her hands in the air to the man.

Reboyama looked at her for a moment before a small smirk spread across his mouth.

"Tomorrow, I will be," his hand submerged into his pocket as he walked up to her. "But I got you something that I wanted to give you before you left."

Tsuna's eyes narrowed, watching the man walk up to her.

"What is it?"

Slowly, the man pulled out a small, carved crystal bottle with what looked like a white gold screw-on top. It was about the size of the center of his palm, in which the bottle lay as he held it out towards her, looking right at her as she took in his glittering little offering. It was filled with something, something thick, glossy and black and Cecilia didn't need to think too long before she knew what it was.

Ink.

Why was this man giving her ink?

Slowly, Tsuna raised her eyes to look at the man.

"What..?" she muttered, suddenly finding it difficult to structure her words.

"It's special ink imported from Italy." The man told her, turning the bottle over in his hand, the light caught onto the crystal, making it shine in all the colors of the rainbow. "It's made of a special mineral that I think will give a different effect to your works."

For a long moment, Tsuna just stared at the bottle.

"Why are you giving me this?" she was rather scared to actually take the bottle.

Reboyama only sighed, taking another step towards her.

"I don't want us to be on odd ends with one another." He said, taking her wrist into his free hand and raising it, palm-up in between them. "Think of this as a peace offering." He put the bottle into her much smaller hand, allowing her to feel just how large it actually was before he folded her fingers around it. Much of the bottle could still be seen when held in her own, whilst it had been completely swallowed by Reboyama’s hand.

With a nod, the teacher descended the stairs, exiting her bedroom with no more words.

For a moment, Tsuna just stared after him, bottle still clutched in her hand before she realized that she actually had somewhere to be. And so, she turned back towards her desk, slipping the bottle into one of the drawers of spare fabrics (in case she feels she wants/needed to alter/repair some of her father's gifted clothes), allowing it to rest atop a pillow of soft materials where she was sure nothing too serious would happen to it before she closed the drawer.

* * *

It had been hard work, dragging herself out the door and forcing each and every step as she almost stumbled to school. She suspected that she must have looked odd to the other people on the sidewalks, and even those sitting comfortably in the Magna-vehicles that zoomed past her as she walked.

She knew that Yamamoto had promised her that her school experience would be better when she returned, and she knew that he would try and keep his words on that because he wasn’t the type of guy to do anything halfheartedly, but there was only so much one could do when you can only really keep track on the one class and with them being in different divisions, there were plenty of courses that they took separately.

She just hoped to everything pure that Hibari Kyoya had put up a stronger search for anything potentially harmful and pulled strings to lessen bullying whilst she was gone.

Sure enough, when she got to the gates of the school, she was met with one of the many black-clad members of the disciplinary committee.

She didn’t know his name, but apparently, he recognized her.

“We need to check your bag for weapons,” he said, nodding towards the bag hanging over her shoulder. He had this kind look in his eyes, almost as if he was feeling sorry for having to ask her, of all people, that question.

He held his hand out towards her.

“If you please.” he almost sounded cautious.

It was a strange sight, seeing as the disciplinary committee usually made a point to look strong and imposing, “encouraging” the students to obey the rules of the building and the town. This one was looking as though he was asking his little sister to show her her bag at his parents orders, it was mind-boggling.

She gave him a gentle smile, allowing her bag to slide down her arm into her hand, closing her fingers around the straps as she lifted it up, holding it towards the older student.

Giving the bag a quick look-through, the disciplinary committee member handed the bag back, looking almost sheepish.

Of course, no one but Tsuna noticed this.

She was the only one that wasn’t petrified from fear whenever one of those black coats appeared around the corner.

“Sorry for the inconvenience.” the teen offered with a short bow.

She shook her head slightly at his words., brushing her hair behind her ear as she put the bag back on her shoulder.

In school, Tsuna always made an effort to appear as small as possible, to try and direct the attention away from her as much as possible (which really wasn’t all that much), but now, she was slowly straightening out her shoulders to look the elder student right in the eye (something that was very rare).

“No inconvenience,” she assured him, she could see the flash of shock in his eyes at the very rare sound of her voice. “I may be the only one who appreciates this.”

The young man gave her a look of calm understanding, nodding lightly before he jerked his head to the side, indicating that she should get a move on.

And she did.

Aside from the bag check, the first real change that hit Tsuna as she stepped through the school gates, was on the electronic notice-board, where a particularly large notice was flashing in bright, vibrant colors, gaining the attention of every student that passed it.

_NEW OPTIONAL COURSE ADDED TO THE SCHOOL!_

_A.A._

_The meaning behind the name, as well as the meaning of the course shall only be revealed to the students accepted to the course, hand-picked by the new teacher, Reboyama Kidou._

_Those interested in trying out for the new class, please report to classroom 3-G in the west wing after your regular classes has ended, Reboyama-sensei keeps his door open at all hours so feel free to just drop in._

Tsuna couldn’t help the frown that slowly etched itself onto her eyebrows.

A.A…

What kind of a pretentious name for a class was that?

And THIS was the class that Reboyama-sensei was so insistent on her trying out for?

The thought didn’t really sit well with her.

She could see several students gathered at the bottom of the notice-board, so obviously, the course had some level of interest from the student body. But as far as Tsuna was concerned, unless the teacher himself dragged her to the classroom, she sure wouldn’t put her foot anywhere close to classroom 3-G.

Shaking her head, she turned her feet around, moving towards the school.

* * *

When she entered the school, she realized that the weapon-check at the gates wasn’t the only thing the head prefect had done to stop the bullying.

The hallways were patrolled by tall, uniform prefects, their black coats sporting red and gold arm patches. There was at least one of them in every hallway, at least, it felt like that as  Tsuna moved through the building.

Even with the "guards" lining the corridors, Tsuna could still hear the whispers following her through the school.

"Hey, is that Dame-Tsuna?"

"Didn't she get shot?"

"I thought they said she died."

She'd just rounded one of said corners when she crashed into a surprisingly muscled chest.

She probably would have fallen over, had not the person she'd crashed into gently grabbed her by the shoulders, keeping her upright as she regained her bearings.

"Careful."

The voice was deep, and familiar.

Had she been anyone else, she'd probably frozen to the spot with overwhelming fear, but instead, the voice filled up her body with a sense of comforting warmth that Tsuna seriously couldn't understand why she felt that way. Especially, when she raised her head and saw Hibari Kyoya's second in command and childhood friend.

Kusakabe Tetsuya.

She knew, she knew that she should be terrified of him, she knew that she should be terrified of both high ranking prefects, and yet, all she felt towards them was comfort.

It didn't really help when he looked at her with the softest gaze imaginable.

He recognized her, that much was apparent.

"You alright to be back at school, Sawada?" the deputy head prefect asked her, slowly taking his hands away from her shoulders. "From what the chairman told me, you were hurt pretty bad."

There it was, that glint of concern in his eyes that made it absolutely impossible for Tsuna to feel any form of fear towards him, despite him almost literally tower over her.

She couldn't help the small smile that spread over her lips.

"Yeah." She nodded, keeping her voice low. "Yeah, I'm fine." She ran her fingers over the spot she knew the stitches were, even though she couldn't feel them. "They got me some bio-material, it's no big deal."

Kusakabe followed where she ran her hand, a small frown forming before he seemed to realize what he was doing.

Clearing his throat, he straightened out his back.

Kusakabe Tetsuya was from a family of caretakers, caretakers in change of the Hibari family. Growing up with the head prefect, Kusakabe had been raised alongside him, learning all of the well-bred traits that Tsuna had learned to distinguish as she observed the people around her. He was a proper young man, polite when the situation called for it and because of what his family did, he knew better than to act superior to the people around him, which was probably one of the reasons why Hibari had seen it as a good idea to appoint him as his deputy.

He was seen as a frightening man because of the power he held over the student body and his closeness to the even more frightening and physically strong Hibari Kyoya, but Kusakabe would never raise a hand against anyone unless he felt the absolute need to do so.

Of everyone in the school, Kusakabe was the only one capable of keeping Hibari from beating someone up.

He was a good man, and Tsuna thought it was a shame that there were so few people that knew that.

"It's good to see you back." Kusakabe stated, looking down at her.

Tsuna let out a brief sigh.

"I would like to say that it was good to be back, but…" she trailed off. Thankfully, it didn't look as though Kusakabe was holding anything against her at that statement.

He loved the school, and he could obviously see why Tsuna didn't.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna motioned with her hand around them.

"I see that the chairman's doing something about it though." She nodded towards the prefect that just entered their line of vision.

"Yeah." Kusakabe agreed. "In the chairman's own words, the school should be safe for any and all students within the building." A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. "He spent the whole three days you were out organizing these patrol plans for the committee."

Tsuna found herself frowning again.

"How did he know I was out for three days?"

Kusakabe stiffened for a second, then, he allowed himself to relax a little.

"The chairman checked up on you of course." He stated with apparent ease, though there was a small tense note to his voice as he spoke. "You know how he is with people dying because of something that happened on school property."

Tsuna felt herself nod, which was strange as most of the time someone came close to dying because of something that happened on school grounds, was caused by said chairman.

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"I should head to class."

"You should." Kusakabe agreed, his eyes softening for a second before he put his hand on her shoulder. "Take it easy, okay?"

Again, Tsuna nodded, and kept walking.

* * *

She'd closed her ears off to the whispers, knowing that they were only going to become louder after her conversation with the deputy chairman of the prefects, but right now, she needed to get to class.

She opened the door to the room as quietly as she could, hoping that she wouldn't attract too much attention by entering.

When was the last time her hopes came true?

The second she put one foot into the classroom, all eyes were on her.

She could feel herself freezing up, her fingers clutching at the straps of her bag so tightly her nails were digging into the palms of her hands, turning her knuckles white.

They were studying her. Their eyes moving all over her body, looking for something that Tsuna didn't really feel like she wanted to know what it was.

Unconsciously, she took a step back.

She hadn't expected that she would back right into something hard, yet soft, warm, and very living, at the same time. Something that put something feeling very similar to hands on her shoulders to keep her from moving any further than she'd already done.

Turning her head around, she found herself staring up at the face of Yamamoto Takeshi, his hazel eyes warmly twinkling down at her.

He smiled widely down at her.

"Good to see you back Sawada."

The effect those words had on her… the feeling of someone of her own class actually being glad that she was there was kind of overwhelming. Her heart ached a little and she was forced to look away from the athlete, face heating up as she desperately tried to calm herself down.

This whole morning was to her nerves like an ancient laptop trying to process too much data.

Taking the situation into his own hands, Yamamoto began to push Tsuna into the classroom, gently guiding her through the rows of desks before he stopped in front of hers. There, he spun her around, knowing that she would handle it now and pushed her down onto the chair.

"There." He said, shining up like a two-year-old that had just managed to put a block down the right hole. "Now the balance has been restored."

Then, with a pat on her shoulder, he turned towards his own desk, sat down, and the previous moment was forgotten.

Feeling a bit miffed, Tsuna shoot her head before she let her bag slide down her arm, allowing it to rest on her lap as she dug through the content for her memory stick, plugging it into the screen surface of her desk before she pulled out her pencil-case and notebook as well.

There was still at least fifteen minutes until class started, she wanted to do some doodling whilst she still could, ignoring the looks of the students surrounding her.

Sadly, her classmates did not want to give her the privilege of that.

A gentle, calloused hand landed on her shoulder, forcing her to turn around towards the athlete sitting behind her, his eyes gentle as he looked her over.

“You healing up alright?” he asked, even though he’d visited her almost every day in the hospital to check up on her, but he hadn’t seen her for a few days so she could understand just why he was asking her that now.

“Yes,” she answered easily with a short nod. “I’m banned from physical education until after summer break, but I’m fine.”

The smile she was given at those words filled her with the strangest sense of tranquility, relief, something that she was not used to feeling. His hand still resting on her shoulder.

* * *

From a few desks away, Fujitaka looked at the ballet dancer and the baseball player, a dark emotion boiling in the pit of his stomach.

He had shared the same dance class as that girls for those two weeks she was there for, and never had she even thrown him a second glance.

He didn’t notice his childhood friend looking at him from beside him, sadness in her eyes.

* * *

A few minutes late, their homeroom teacher stepped into the classroom, looking over each and every one of the students. Then his eyes fell on the fact that he hadn’t seen for quite a long time now.

“Sawada-san, you’re back!” Kuroda-sensei called out in obvious happiness.

Immediately,  Tsuna noticed how the mood of everyone around her turned dark,  all thoughts about her returning from being shot leaving their minds as they recalled one of the reasons why they hated her so much.

The teachers loved her.

She didn’t answer the teacher, instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper, holding it up in the air towards the middle-aged man. He looked a little confused as he walked over towards her, plucking the paper from her hand.

The class all watched as the teacher unfolded the paper and read it’s content.

The look that spread across the teacher's face was almost deliriously happy as he looked down at the girl at the desk.

“That’s great news.” he said in great joy.

It didn’t exactly help the class’s mood, if anything, they immediately began to make up rumors as to why the teacher would be so happy for her. Some even going so far as to speculating that she was sleeping with the man and had just discovered that she actually weren’t pregnant.

They watched as Kuroda-sensei went and fetched the memory stick of everything they had gone through while she was gone, some even openly frowning as the teacher returned to the front of the classroom.

“Sawada-san.” a voice piped up from a few desks down, forcing Tsuna to turn around and face the speaker, slightly bewildered as it wasn’t exactly a voice that spoke to her all that often. She’d heard it, but she couldn’t recall a time she’d heard it directed to her.

It was  Sasagawa Kyoko .

The adorable,  frilly angel of the class. Her long loose curls of bright red hair put up stylishly around her pale, freckled face, framing her amber-colored eyes.

“What was that note?” she asked gently, blinking adorably.

Tsuna was almost overwhelmed.

Not because of how unusual it was for her to receive a gentle question of genuine concern with no hostility hidden in the wording, although that was part of the reason, but also because of the overwhelming sense of off she got from the girl.

She was not comfortable.

She looked like the perfect little angel, and she did not look comfortable with her appearance at all.

Tsuna blinked back at the girl for a moment before she remembered the question.

“Just an update on pre-existing problems.” she answered, not elaborating as she quickly spun back around towards the front of the class, ignoring the confused looks of the people surrounding her. The only one understanding her, sitting behind her.

Yamamoto found himself smirking a little, almost relishing in the fact that he was the only one who knew about  Tsuna ’s brain problems.

He would hold it over the class for a while, just to see their faces when he crashes their realities over their heads.

* * *

_ **May 6** _

_ **Wednesday 2215** _

They were in the middle of class,  in the middle of a lecture when there was a sudden knock on the door.

All eyes turned to the entrance, just in time to see a (to  Tsuna ) familiar face slide the slab of wood open and step inside. Immediately, excited whispers could be heard from the female population, and even a few of the boys.

“Oh, sweet sunlight, who is that?”

“He’s so hot!”

Tsuna desperately tried to block the whispers from her mind.

Yes, she knew he was hot, she knew he could probably get any woman he wanted with a well-placed smirk and a longer stare. With his looks he could just say he was interested in them and they would quite willingly drop all their clothes. But he was  a probable early thirty-year-old living under her mother’s roof for heavens sake! EW!

“Reboyama-sensei?” the teacher, who just so happened to be a woman in her tale thirties, blushed furiously as she allowed herself to address the man. “W-what are you doing here?”

Nobusawa-sensei was obviously crushing on him...

How long had he been employed at the school?

From the look on  Reboyama ’s face, he was well aware of the teachers' affections, as well as the reaction he had on the class. It wasn’t easy to miss.

What annoyed  Tsuna , was the smirk that formed on his mouth.

How cocky can a person get?

“I’m just promoting my class Umeka-san, not to worry,” Reboyama stated with a casual wave of his hand, stepping into the room as another wave of whispers swept through the room.

“Fuck, he’s a teacher.”

“Damn it all...”

“Why are all the hot ones unavailable?”

Nobusawa-sensei looked a little taken aback for a few seconds before she shook her head, sending her black hair flying. Taking a deep breath and clearing her throat, she forced her throat to work, her hands clenching nervously at her sides.

“Go right ahead.” she managed to keep herself from stuttering as she motioned with her hand towards the students blinking at the two teachers.

Tsuna could see the smirk on  Reboyama ’s face as he stepped up towards the front of the class, though he made sure that it had been replaced by a somewhat genuine, friendly smile by the time he turned towards the class. His eyes locking with  Tsuna ’s for a bit longer than she was comfortable with before he finally started talking.

“Good morning student,” he said, his dark voice booming over the whole room, successfully shutting up any remaining whispering, making sure that everyone’s eyes were firmly locked onto him. “I’m Reboyama Kidou and I’m the teacher of the new A.A class.” Tsuna could practically feel how badly her classmates wanted to start whispering again, but it was as if Reboyama had stolen each and even one of their voices. “I’ve heard that there are a few questions about my class and so I’m visiting each classroom to answer a few of them.” immediately, hands shot up into the air, much to the teacher's obvious amusement. “Ah, yes?” he said, pointing towards a guy.

“What is the class about?” the young man who’s name Tsuna had never bothered to learn shot out.

Reboyama chuckled at the student’s enthusiasm.

“That I am choosing not to answer.” he answered. It wasn’t a satisfactory answer, he knew that, and he immediately kept talking to quell and complaints before they came. “Only those who take the class will know exactly what it is about.” he waved his hands as he spoke, almost like a conductor, it almost served to distract Tsuna from the obvious manipulation no one else was catching onto, and it worried her. “What I can say is that it has a lot to do with internal learning.”

Internal learning.

His class was about internal learning, and he wanted her to join it?

Just what kind of internal learning was he talking about?

“What brought you to this school?” another student piped up, knocking Tsuna out of her thoughts.

“I heard Namimori was one of the most beautiful towns in Japan.” came Reboyama’s simple answer. “So far, I have not been disappointed.”

A standard reply.

Namimori was known for being  one of the few towns  to have more vegetation than buildings. The town relished in their trees, bushes, floral beds. Anything that brought pure oxygen to the town, the town always put in additional money for gardeners to make sure that there are no dying or dead plants on public ground.

It was the main tourist attraction in this world of atmosphere and ocean cleaning stations.

“Why are you bringing the course to our school?” a female asked after having been pointed out by the man.

Immediately,  the man’s eyes locked with  Tsuna . His mere presence had everyone’s eyes locked on him, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone questioning him about why he singled out her specifically.

She, on the other hand, found herself feeling very, very uncomfortable.

“I think some of you students will benefit… greatly, from my teachings.” he said, and Tsuna knew, without a doubt, that he was speaking to her.

Why he did though, she had no idea, and it freaked her out.

“Are you single!” a boy called out. He hadn’t been pointed out, he obviously just thought the question needed to be asked.

Thankfully though, immature question or not, it made the teacher look away from  Tsuna .

“I think that’s enough questions.” he immediately replied with a deep chuckle that washed over everyone in the room. Of course, the comment sent waves of objections his way but he silenced them all with a raised hand. “I shouldn’t keep you from your actual lessons.” he turned towards Nobusawa-sensei, who had been standing there almost in a trance the whole time, giving her a quick bow. “Thank you Umeka-san.”

“No problem...” Nobusawa-sensei breathed her reply.

Tsuna allowed her eyes to follow the man as he exited the room, their eyes once again locking before the sliding door shut.

He just became more and more suspicious, making her more and more uncomfortable, with every passing moment she spent  even within that man’s mere presence.  He had motives, strange motives for being in  Namimori .

Reasons that… obviously involved her.

She did not like knowing that…

* * *

Physical class.

Each student were actually required to sign up for some sort of physical activity whilst in school, it didn't matter if you were in the Academic or Artistic division, you were still expected to sign up for some sort of sport, weapons training or even dance. Like Tsuna had ballet.

But, even with this, the students still had physical class once a week.

Tsuna was sitting in the bleachers of the gym, watching as her classmates picked teams for the round of dodge ball that was about to fill the room. If she'd been allowed to actually participate, she knew she would have been picked last, but as she was banned from physical activity until after summer vacation, she was on the sidelines, her head resting in her hands as she watched her classmates fighting over who was going to get Yamamoto on their team.

Seriously, sometimes Tsuna was baffled at how Yamamoto was able to handle that much pressure.

Just like Tsuna always got the blame whenever her team lost, Yamamoto got all the praise whenever his team won.

To most of the school, it was like there were no other members of the team whenever they were on the team and thus, none of them actually put any effort in playing, supposedly knowing exactly what the end result was going to become simply by having either Tsuna or Yamamoto on their side.

And of course, because they never make any effort, of course they find themselves correct in their assumptions.

At the moment however, Tsuna wasn't thinking about the upcoming game at all, her mind was focused on what was circling around the schools rumor mill at the moment.

Specifically, the A.A application test.

It was only the third day in which the A.A. has actually been a thing, and it has already marked its spot as the hardest course to get accepted into. Despite the stunt, the teacher had pulled that very morning.

Apparently, if you want to apply for the course, Reboyama brings you into the classroom one by one and sits you down to answer a few questions on the desk screen, only as you do this, the teacher sits at the front of the room and spend the few minutes you answer the questions staring at you, not even blinking.

When you're done with the test, the teacher barely even glances at the answers before telling you that you are not suited for the course and sends you away.

Picky about his students, that man.

This just made Tsuna wonder…

Why did Reboyama want her in the class?

Sure, she was rather confident that she'd be able to answer the questions without being bothered by his staring as she's gotten more than used to it over the few days he's lived in her house, but who is to say she would even answer the questions right? According to the students he never gives the same questions to the same students and they are each one more confusing than the other.

A presence at her side snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Sawada?" a soft, baritone voice asked, making Tsuna turn around to the sound.

It was a boy in her class, with soft wavy locks of chestnut hair sitting on top of an androgynous head. His built was one she knew though, she'd be pretty stupid if she didn't.

A ballet built.

"Can I help you?" Tsuna asked, brushing a few hairs behind her ears as she took in her classmates pale blue eyes staring down at her.

It was quite unnerving to say the least.

There was no layer of ill will in it, like the majority of her classmates that were obviously straining themselves to be nice to her, even though they did slip up every once in a while when calling out to her.

Dame-Tsuna.

Tsuna could have sworn she saw a light flush forming on the boy's surprisingly sharp cheekbones.

"I-I was just wondering." The boy stuttered, almost collapsing on the bench next to her, making her flinch a little. "When are you returning to ballet class?"

The question seemed to be so out of the blue that Tsuna found herself blinking in shock.

"Why are you wondering?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"It's just…" the boy said, eyes locked onto his hands where he appeared to be in the middle of wringing his finger-bones out of their joints. "I like seeing you dance."

Tsuna felt herself thrown out of the loop.

"What?" she asked, voice barely more than a whisper.

Thankfully, the boy seemed to have caught it.

"Sawada… I've seen a lot of dancers over the years, and not a lot of them have what you do."

This brought a frown to Tsuna's face, shifting her gaze back and forth between the young man and the crowd in front of them.

"A lack of balance?" she asked hesitantly, wondering what in the world this person could be talking about.

To his credit, the man only let out one small chuckle, one that actually sounded surprisingly nice from where Tsuna was sitting.

Finally, he raised his head, looking directly at her.

"Determination."

Once again, Tsuna found herself a little thrown off.

She hadn't been able to become determined about anything before, it always screwed up her brain. What had willed her to continue before had been just that, a strong will? And, maybe stubbornness and perseverance that may have made it appear as though she was determined…

It was still strange to have someone say that about her dancing!

The man hadn't stopped talking.

"I suppose that comes with your… lack of balance, but I have always admired the amount of work you put into every step in every choreography handed to you." He was looking back at his hands again, wringing his fingers in what Tsuna suspected was a nervous habit of his, though why he would be nervous around her… she didn't want to believe that. "You may not think it, but…" the man continued, swallowing slightly before he raised his head again, looking her right in the eyes. "You're a great dancer, and I personally want to see you back in the studio."

Oh no…

He was.

Tsuna watched, wide-eyed as the young man stood up, the coach having blown his whistle for everyone to take their place with the team they had been picked for. Blinking, Tsuna decided to take the chance.

Nothing would change if she didn't try for it.

"Hey!" she called out, making the young man pause and look back to her, his own eyes wide now. "I'm sorry…" she said, looking rather sheepish as she brushed some hair behind her ear. "I've never really seen a purpose to learning all my classmate's names."

For a moment, the man looked a little hurt, but Tsuna could clearly see the gentle understanding in his eyes.

"Fujitaka Sasuke." He answered her unasked question.

The name made Tsuna's eyes widen a little bit more.

She knew that name. She'd heard it when she was locked up in that white-painted prison.

The second person to try and save her life, according to Yamamoto.

"You sent me roses in the hospital?" she asked, not really knowing where the question came from, but she just got the feeling that she already knew the answer.

Fujitaka just gave her the gentlest, most genuine smile anyone outside of her family has ever given.

"You deserve them."

And with that, he turned back around, and joined the rest of the class for the game, leaving Tsuna sitting there, dumbfounded.

* * *

It was the break before the last class of the day, and apparently, one of her classmates had had something on his mind that he finally decided to get off his chest.

“Sawada.” Urata Toru said as he settled down on the desk in front of the girl. A girl that had spent the last handful of minutes with her face buried in a very expensive looking sketchbook clad in black leather. As he had expected, she did little more than glance at him from above the edge of the books before she looked down again.

It was something that  Sawada had done for the short time he’d known her.

Very few in their class had shared a classroom with her for longer than two years, having shared at least one year with her in middle school, but all of them had known  Sawada to be the kind of girl to just look at you long enough to know that she was listening, and then ignore you for whatever it was they wanted to tell her.

Talk about rude.

Still,  Toru wouldn’t allow that to stop him right now, taking a deep breath to gather his words as he watched  Sawada move her pen over  the page she had open in her hands.

“I have wanted to ask this for a while now...” he started slowly, watching as Sawada apparently ignored his very existence. He sighed, but he continued with a level of determination. “Why do you never talk to anyone?” 

He didn’t know why he bothered asking her that.

He r pen stopped moving, but she still didn’t look at him. It was the only sign he got that she was even listening.

“Forget it-” he breathed, but to his surprise, he didn’t get to finish his sentence.

“Why should I?” Sawada suddenly asked, still not looking up from her sketchbook, but the effect of her voice was enough to suddenly make the classroom go deathly quiet. All eyes pinned on the messy-haired classmate.

It took a moment for  Toru to get his voice back.

“What do you mean?” he asked, leaning forward on the desk.

Sighing,  Sawada lowered her sketchbook, allowing  Toru to see the light brown eyes peeking through her bangs, not bothering to acknowledge the looks of their classmates around them.  To her, it was like they weren’t even there.

Carefully,  Sawada bookmarked the page she’d been drawing on and allowed it to lay on her desk as she looked at her classmate.

“For as long as I can remember...” she started with a deep sigh, brushing the hair behind her ear. “No one has actually wanted to talk to me other than to demean me one way or another.” her voice carried out over the class with a surprising steadiness, her voice clear and having this natural tone that simply demanded everyone to listen to her. It was something that shocked most of their classmates. “If you have nothing of meaning to tell me, I don’t want to talk to you.” she shrugged her tiny shoulders, her head tilting with the movement. “It’s as simple as that.”

To ru felt as though his voice had been locked up in his throat, having to clear it before he managed to reply to the girl.

“So...” he started slowly, raising his hands to move them around in the air. “If we were to genuinely want to start a conversation with you...” he trailed off, not really wanting to finish his line of thoughts. 

Sawada finished it for him.

“I’d have no problem talking,” she answered with a short nod.

This got  Toru thinking, his eyebrows coming together in a frown.

“But...” he started, leaning over the desk towards her in curiosity. “How can you tell?”

“I’ve learned how to read the signs,” Sawada answered easily, brushing her hair behind her ear again as she fingered the strange crest on the cover of her sketchbook.

She can read the signs?

She can read a person by their voice and behavior?

That was a scary thought, and not just because she can do that at all.

“How long has this been going on?” Toru asked, almost dreading the answer.

“How long have I been treated like shit by my classmates?” Sawada elaborated, leaning back into her chair as she answered easily, an answer that she’d obviously known for a long time. “Just over a decade.”

The whole room fell silent.

“A decade?” Toru repeated, eyes wide open.

“A decade.” Sawada confirmed with a nod.

She’s been bullied for a decade? There is no way that is possible, is it?

How could someone be bullied for a decade of constantly changing classes, did someone make it a tradition to treat  Sawada like shit? Or did they make it an unspoken rule somewhere?

Those were the only reasons  Toru could think of, and both were just as illogical.

“I can vouch for that...” Yamamoto piped up from behind Sawada’s back, stepping up to put a gentle hand on said girl’s shoulder, his whole body showing off the shame he was feeling at what he was now revealing to them all. “We’ve shared a class since preschool.” he gave Sawada a gentle squeeze on the shoulder.

Sighing, she reached up her own hand to gently pat the one on her, hoping that it would calm the usually smiling young man down a little.

Toru looked between the both of them, and for the first time, he  saw the complete lack of sexual tension or even romantic chemistry between them. Things that would have had to have been there should any of the rumors about them have been true.

He swallowed heavily before he forced himself to speak.

“I’m… I’m so sorry,” he said, once again gaining the girl’s attention.

For a long moment,  Sawada just sat there, staring into  Toru ’s coffee-colored eyes, under the watchful gaze of the students around them.

Finally, she let out a long sigh, breaking eye-contact.

“I believe you.”


	5. Changed Lifestyle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spark that started the forest fire

Tsuna was sitting in her room, taking a moment to flick through her old sketchbooks for a moment of assurance that she had gotten better over the years. Also, her imagination was better in her younger years

“You don’t like me.” the voice suddenly asked, coming from the top of the staircase.

It had come so out of nowhere that the sound almost tore a scream out of Tsuna’s throat, the sketchbook falling out of her hands as she spun around to face the intruder.

There stood the great teacher himself, Reboyama-sensei, leaning against the railing cutting off her room from the staircase with his hands stuffed into his pockets, looking at her with those strange, dark, dead eyes.

“Really, do you how how to knock!?” it was probably the loudest Tsuna had ever spoken to anyone in a long time, her hands quickly flipping her sketchbook closed before the manipulative man had the chance to see her old drawings.

“I do.” the teacher chuckled, watching her as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I just choose not to.”

Tsuna let out a long sigh, bending down to put the sketchbook down on top of the pile she had standing next to her bed, straightening it out under the almost unblinking gaze of the teacher. It was more than unnerving.

“What exactly don’t you like about me?” he asked, stepping away from the railing, making her look at him with each slow step. The look on his face was borderline sultry.

“Well for one, I don’t like the implication that you’re trying to seduce me right now.” she immediately shot at him, straightening herself out, as well as wrapping her open cardigan around her torso, covering up as much skin as possible.

Immediately, the look was gone, replaced with amusement.

“You can’t take a joke, can you?” he chuckled.

“Not when they’re not funny,” Tsuna replied seriously, pushing herself against the wall, bringing her legs against her chest. “And to answer your statement...” she let out a long, deep breath as she brushed her hair behind her ear, shaking her head as she licked her lips. She did this intentionally, wanting to see if she could annoy the man with her body language as much as he annoyed hers with his.

She wondered if she should give the man her reply, but she eventually decided to just go for it, wanting to get it over it.

“I’ve got nothing against you, it’s your motivations that puts me off.”

Reboyama put his hands back into his pockets, chuckling as he shook his head.

“I’m just a teacher,” he responded, almost not getting to finish his sentence before Tsuna spoke up once again.

“No, you’re not.”

The teacher fell silent, his whole towering frame freezing up.

Slowly, he turned towards her again, his whole demeanor losing the humor he’d carried since he arrived at the house, looking almost like a prowling predator as he looked at her.

Her nerves stood on edge as her eyes met his.

“How are you so sure about that?” he asked, lowering his head.

“There’s something about you that makes me feel really, really weird.”

Reboyama blinked a few times before chuckling, tilting his head so that his fedora shadowed his eyes, his fingers pinching the brim.

“It’s frowned upon to have feelings for a teacher, Tsuna,” he said, obviously trying to revert back to the rather humorous persona he’d taken on before, but the young woman sitting in front of him simply would not have it.

The expression on Tsuna’s face made it clear that she did not find the teacher’s comment to be at all amusing. Her head tilted to the side as she looked at him.

“Come off it,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re a manipulative mystery who has way too much interest in me joining you little course for me to feel comfortable.” she let out a long sigh, brushing her hair behind her ear. “You give me strange feelings.” her eyes narrowed at the man, paying attention to every subtle movement underneath his dress-shirt, not putting her guard down for even a second. “The kind of feeling I always, always, pay attention to.”

She shouldn’t have said that.

She regretted it the second the words were out of her mouth.

The look the teacher was giving her now, only made her suspicions about him worse.

“Oh really?” he asked, taking a few steps closer to her. “And what kind of feeling is that?”

Tsuna didn’t know if she should, but she didn’t like leaving genuine questions unanswered, even if she didn’t like the manipulative look he was giving her.

“A tugging at my mind.” she described slowly, shrinking back against the wall whilst still sitting on the bed, wrapping her arms around her whilst she kept her eyes pinned on the man. “That’s the best way I can describe it.”

There was one thing that Tsuna really couldn’t describe no matter how much she thought, but there was something happening inside the teacher’s dark eyes with every additional work that made its way out of her mouth.

“You should really consider joining my class Tsuna.” Reboyama once again insisted, now standing close enough to her bed that he would be sitting on it if he took one more step.

She wasn’t particularly fond of that thought.

“With everything inside me telling me to be wary of you?” she narrowed her eyes at the man, her fingers clenching around her cardigan. “Forget it.” seeing the muscles in the teacher’s jaw working, she decided to cut him off before he had the chance to manipulate her into telling him yes. “Now get out of my room.”

She was adamant about him leaving her room, and with him paying her mother to stay under their roof, the teacher had no choice but to do what she asked.

Although… when he turned around to the stairs, Tsuna could have sworn she saw the man smirking.

Why would he smirk?

* * *

_ **May 7** _

_ **Thursday 2215** _

Walking to school had been a lot easier as of late.

Tsuna couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone to the building without feeling a sense of foreboding dread. Without feeling as though she would get shoved into a wall when walking through the hallway, without walking with the thought at the back of her head that at least one of her belongings would get destroyed.

She was walking through the hallway towards homeroom when a voice called out behind her.

It was starting to become something of a routine.

”Hey, Sawada!” Yamamoto Takeshi called as he ran up to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder once he finally reached her side. It was strange to everyone that saw it, just how little romantic tension that came with that action.

“Yamamoto-san.” Tsuna greeted right back, glancing at the man from the corner of her eye in mind annoyance. “Good morning.”

“Looking splendid.” he laughed his response.

“Really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the athlete. “I thought it looked cloudy.”

Yamamoto had to keep himself from staring at Tsuna in absolute shock. That was the first time he’d heard her give any form of joke, even if it was a sarcastic one. Instead, he allowed himself to laugh lightly at her words, mentally patting himself on his back at the light smile that spread across the tiny girl’s face.

“It will always be splendid with good company,” he said, tightening his arm around her neck in a one-arm hug of sorts before he allowed himself to let go.

“Well.” Tsuna sighed, brushing her hair behind her ear. “I don’t usually have good company.”

Yamamoto had to fight the frown off of his face.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Yamamoto replied with a large smile, his hand shooting out to roughly ruffle the top of her head. “You will.”

The two long-term classmates were too caught up in their own conversation, that they failed to notice the heated, angered glares sent their way. Or to be more specific, sent at Tsuna.

Three jocks from the athletic division stood not far away from where the two slowly walked through the hallway, arms crossed over their chests as they looked at them, not even bothering to hide the absolute hatred in their eyes.

Really, it was amazing how Tsuna couldn’t feel it.

* * *

The class watched in shock as Tsuna gracefully moved her hand over the smart-board, answering the question she'd been asked, and as she continued with the equation, the smarter people in the class realized that she was solving it using the correct method, as well as reaching the right answers using the method.

Finally, she set down the board pen, turning around towards the teacher, who looked at Tsuna with a kind smile.

"That is correct." She stated, gesturing for Tsuna to return to her desk.

As luck would have it, Tsuna misjudged the distance between the small platform and ended up losing her balance.

Everyone watched with little interest, used to Tsuna tripping, but then… Tsuna expertly twisted the foot still connected to the floor, forcing her falling body to spin around, making her back face the ground. Then, with confidence that they didn't know she had, she put her other foot down behind her, forcing her body back up in an elegant arch.

For a long moment, even after Tsuna had collapsed, blushing, back in her desk, the class remained in a state of shocked silence.

* * *

_ **May 11** _

_ **Monday 2215** _

“Hey.” Yamamoto caught Tsuna’s attention with a tap on her shoulder during lunch, making the girl turn around towards him, chopsticks still lodged between her lips. “What are you doing after school?” he asked with a smile, leaning his head onto his arms, lying down over the desk as his hazel eyes blinked up at her.

“Why are you asking?” she asked right back, removing the chopsticks from her mouth.

“Don’t do that to me, Sawada.” Yamamoto playfully whined, raising his head a little as he reached out his hands to drip the front of his desk. “I wanna know.”

Tsuna popped a piece of chicken into her mouth, chewing slowly to drag out the athlete’s waiting time.

He playfully glared at her when he realized what she was doing.

“I’m going to the psychiatrist,” she answered after swallowing, blinking innocently at him.

Yamamoto slowly raised himself into a sitting position, his expression becoming a lot more serious.

“First visit?” he asked, bringing his arms closer to him, his hands intertwining on top of the desk as he looked at her.

Tsuna nodded.

“You already went?” it was only logical that their classmates would need some form of therapy after what they witnessed that day. But she hadn’t heard anything along those lines from the gossip in between classes.

Then again, therapy wasn’t that nice a subject to converse about.

Yamamoto’s mood darkened slightly, still leaning his weight on the desk, fingers fiddling.

“Everyone in our class went while you were gone,” he explained, his fingers starting to fiddle as he looked at her. “They brought a psychiatrist to stay in the building for a week just for that purpose.” he motioned with his finger around the room. “Some are still going, depending on how traumatized they were.”

Tsuna blinked at him, tilting her head to the side.

“Do you still go?” she asked, curious.

To her surprise, Yamamoto smiled at her.

“I cleared myself by visiting you in the hospital.”

For a long moment, the two classmates just looked at one another. Then, Yamamoto’s face broke into a wide smile, his hand shooting out to gently put his hand on her shoulder.

“You know what,” he said. “I’m walking you to the office.”

She blinked, momentarily thrown off at his sudden statement.

“Yamamoto-san.” Tsuna tried, thinking about how she could persuade the man that he didn’t have to do that. The thought of anyone taking away from their off-time to be with her made her slightly uncomfortable.

Okay, very uncomfortable.

“No.” “I’m not going to let you talk me out of it.” “I’m walking you to the office.”

Yamamoto was a stubborn young man, she knew that it was part of the reason why they were sitting there, talking, in the first place.

Shaking her head, she let out a long breath.

“Just do what you want...” she said, turning back around to her lunch, picking up another piece of chicken and shoved it into her mouth.

“You know I will.” Yamamoto laughed, leaning back into his chair.

Tsuna found herself with a small smile on her face despite her rolling her eyes.

Once again, she failed to notice the group of three jocks from the athletic division. Why they were standing at the doorway to the classroom, no one knew. They speculated it was because of the angelic red-head sharing a pleasant meal with her much more mature, dark chocolate haired friend at the center of the classroom but they didn’t have to remain there.

Once again, they were looking at Tsuna with the most heated, hate-filled glares, and she was completely oblivious to it.

She usually wasn’t.

There was just something about Yamamoto that made her calm.

* * *

"I can’t believe you actually went with me..." Tsuna asked, throwing a glance towards Yamamoto as she stopped in front of the therapist's house.

"Of course I did." Yamamoto insisted, patting Tsuna on the head. "I need to make sure you actually went here."

Tsuna frowned, knocking his hand away.

"I would have gone even if you didn't walk me you know." She said, giving Yamamoto a look.

"Alright." Yamamoto laughed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You take care of that trauma." He said, stepping away from her whilst pointing a humoring finger at her.

Tsuna gave him a look of light annoyance, watching him disappear down the road before she turned her attention back towards the door.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, only to freeze in place once the sight of what was on the other side of the door registered into her brain.

Takahashi Jouichi was standing in the middle of the waiting room.

For a long moment, the two teens just stared at one another, frozen to the spot, unsure of what they were supposed to do. She certainly had the urge to run away from the scene, ignoring the fact that she had been practically ordered to go to the office and just, lock herself up in her bedroom for another couple of days.

It was only her sheer stubbornness that kept her feet nailed to the floor.

It took a while, but Takahashi finally scratched behind his ear, groaning a little before taking a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"You here for a therapy session?" he asked, sounding very awkward.

This wasn't the best opening sentence, and he knew it.

Tsuna had to swallow before she sounds bring her voice out, though she couldn't do that whilst she was still looking at him.

"And who's fault is it that I'm here?" she asked bitterly, wrapping her arms around her waist, covering up the area where he had managed to shoot her.

Takahashi seemed to understand this action.

"Fair enough…" he sighed, putting his hands into his pockets as he kicked at the floor.

The silence between the two of them was deafening.

"Look… Sawada." Takahashi finally spoke up, voice shaking slightly. "I'm sorry."

Tsuna froze at his words, her breath catching as her eyes widened.

"What?" she whispered, her whole body stiff with the nerves that were building up inside of her. Had she not been so distracted by Takahashi's mere presence, she probably would have noticed the tingling sensation that was slowly moving up her arms, starting from the tips of her fingers.

"It was only meant to scare you." Takahashi tried to explain, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I never intended to actually injure you like that."

Tsuna rolled her eyes at his words.

"Oh, and that has kept you from pushing me down the stairs?"

Takahashi groaned at her tone, scratching himself behind the ear in an action resembling a dog.

"I've seen you be pushed downstairs before, you're always fine." He argued, holding his hands out in front of him, gesturing over her entire tiny body.

"Big shock!" Tsuna almost screamed, throwing her hands out at her sides. "I wasn't the first time it happened!"

Tsuna would have thought back to said day, reminisce on the pain she'd felt when she'd tumbled down each step before blacking out at the bottom, but truth be told, she had no memory of said tumble down the stairs or even at what time exactly she'd blacked out during the fall, because the blow she'd taken to her head during that time, had made her forget all about it, that and more.

For a moment, Takahashi just stared at her.

"You're… surprisingly sarcastic." He commented, voice dripping with disbelief.

“No way...” Tsuna exclaimed, her voice more than laced with sarcasm. “With my history, I would have thought I was a romantic.” she would probably have glared at Takahashi had she not believed she would have collapsed into a pile of broken nerves should she try to.

Takahashi stated at her for a moment, eyes wide at the surprising character trait that he would have never expected the girl in front of him to possess. She'd always been so quiet, refusing to talk to anyone who decided to address her. Now that he thought about it… she'd probably become used to people not really having anything important to say to her, and thus… she just stopped talking altogether.

The guilt welled up in him as he thought about everything she's probably been through.

"Seriously though…" he muttered softly, staring at the side of her face. "I really am sorry."

It took a few deep breaths, a hand resting on top of her chest to calm down her speeding heart before Tsuna managed to find her voice again, and even then, it was hesitant, shaky.

"I accept your apology." She said slowly, hands clutching at her upper-arms. "But I don't forgive you."

Takahashi nodded, having understood that this would most likely be the case.

"Alright…" he said, stepping up towards the door. "Well, I don't suppose I'll see you again?"

"For the sake of my nerves, I hope not," Tsuna replied barely louder than a whisper, refusing to look at the man.

To his credit, Takahashi actually chuckled at her words, shaking his head as he walked past her in the doorway, taking a moment to look her right in the eye, allowing her to see the full extent of his emotions.

"Take care."

And with that, Takahashi disappeared out the building, leaving Tsuna staring after him before she took a deep breath, shaking her head as she fully stepped into the building, closing the door behind her.

* * *

Tsuna had been sitting in the waiting room for a good twenty minutes, sketchbook open in her lap as she doodled away. Once again, forming the strange sigils, or were they glyphs? She didn’t know what they were but her hand apparently felt like she should draw them.

They were pretty tough, there was that.

“Sawada-san?” a voice calling from the psychiatrist’s door made Tsuna look up from the page, meeting the gaze of a man that looked to be in his forties, gray hairs already starting to show in his sandy hair.

Dr. Homura Taikan had been recommended, he was apparently the best therapist in Namimori.

“Yes,” Tsuna responded, snapping her sketchbook shut as she got up from the chair, picking her bag up from the floor as she followed the middle-aged man’s outstretched into the office.

They spoke precious little as Tsuna settled down on one of the chairs in the room, stuffing her sketchbook back into her bag before she turned her attention back towards the man, watching as he flicked his touch-pen over the screen on his tablet.

Finally, he put the folded up the device and put it down.

“From my report, you are recovering from an accidental gunshot?” he asked, leaning back in his own chair, his legs crossed with his hands resting on his knee, gray eyes finding Tsuna’s own.

Immediately, she knew that she was being studied.

She did not like being studied.

“Yes,” she answered with a sigh, brushing her hair behind her ear. “The guy who did it actually stepped out when I arrived.” she actually hadn’t wanted to say that, but she knew that it was a question that would be asked at one point or another during the session, she didn’t want to needlessly drag that out.

The doctor’s eyes widened at the revelation.

“And how are you feeling?” he asked, leaning forward a little, still studying her every move.

Sighing, Tsuna started picking at the fabric of the chair, at the raised embroidery, refusing to look at the man.

“I could have been better,” she answered slowly. “My nerves are on edge.”

“I can tell.” the man commented, eyes lingering on her restless, fiddling fingers. “But how would you have described your nerves before you encountered him?”

Surprisingly, her fingers stopped.

She allowed herself a few, deep breaths, taking a moment with her eyes closed before she let herself smile. When she opened her eyes again, she couldn’t help but to almost relish in the confused look on the doctor's face.

So she had something of a sadistic streak, so what?

That’s a decade of being treated like shit and bottling up the resentment for you.

“Better than they have in years,” she answered honestly.

“Really?” the doctor asked, both confused and intrigued by the looks of it.

“Yes,” she confirmed with a nod.

The doctor was silent for a long moment, obviously keeping himself from openly staring at the girl in front of him. Now, it was her turn to study him, taking in his surprise, studying the wrinkles on his expensive suit jacket, his pathetic attempt to hide a coffee stain on his silk tie...

She had to hide a smirk at her last find.

The doctor shook his head to rid himself of the shock.

“You were shot in the stomach, and you’re better off than you’ve been in years?” something must have snapped inside his head for him to be so slow on the uptake right now, and Tsuna couldn’t help but relish in it somewhat.

“Yes,” she said, holding herself back from dragging out the word like you would when talking to a child. Going so far as to copy the doctors sitting position. “The accident helped partially restore a problem with my brain that I’ve had since childhood.”

Dr. Homura blinked.

“So, you’re saying…” he had to pause to gather his words. “You’re thankful for almost being killed?”

“Yes.” Came Tsuna’s immediate response. Her eyes flickered away for a moment before she spoke up again. “Well… not the almost dying part of it, but you know.”

Once again, the doctor openly stared at her, blinking slowly as if he was trying to decide if either she or her words were the real thing or not. Each blink drawing out on the seconds ticking away, drawing out on the time that had been assigned to Tsuna.

She had no problem leaving him like that.

Her head was a much more interesting place that this office ever would be.

Sadly, he managed to snap himself out of his thoughts once again.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a thing before.” he finally breathed out, pulling his tablet back up to document his rather… peculiar find.

Tsuna once again had to fight a smirk from spreading across her face.

“There’s got to be a first for everything.”

* * *

The session spanned out for a good twenty minutes, talking about what she’d been doing since she got out of the hospital. How her classmates had reacted to her returning to the school and basically how she’d been going on.

Apparently, hearing that she was thriving without a therapist to help her after having been shot in the stomach was quite bewildering for the poor man.

To be honest, a sick part of Tsuna was having quite a good time.

“Alright.” the doctor finally called out, clapping his hands as the watch on his wrist beeped, signifying the end of their session. “You know what.” he started tapping on the tablet. “I want you to come back here again after summer.”

Tsuna bit her lip to sight the smile.

She probably should have been called back after a week, this doctor just didn’t want to deal with the craziness that was Sawada Tsunako’s mind sooner than absolutely necessary.

“Okay,” she said, getting up off of the chair, threading her arm through the straps of the bag, watching as the doctor too peeled himself from his own seat.

He guided her to the door, opening it and kindly motioned for her to leave, although she got the feeling that he was a little desperate for her to get out of the building. Her absence would give him a bit of normality after twenty minutes of confusion and bewilderment.

“I’ll send you a notification once I’ve set up a date for you,” he said.

Tsuna nodded at his words.

“I’ll be waiting,” she replied, stepping through the door into the waiting room.

“Stay strong.” the poor doctor said, smiling at her as he gave her a short wave, though the smile was somehow strained.

Tsuna threw an awkward smile back at the man, nodding shortly before she turned around and walked out of the building, hoping that she wouldn’t have to return there the next time she went there after summer.

* * *

Walking home, Tsuna felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

She’d been dreading this meeting since she’d first gotten the time, knowing that she was well and not wanting someone to pick and poke at her mental state, she did that on her own already what with her handicap and all.

But she didn’t have to worry about it anymore.

Well… not for a long time at the very least.

Finally, she reached her house, stepping in through the unlocked front door and taking off her shoes just like any other day.

“So.” Tsuna jerked at the sound of Reboyama’s voice, almost making her fall over as she shot back to her feet, staring at the man where he stood at the bottom of the staircase, leaning against the pole holding the railing in place as he casually looked at her. “How’d it go?”

Tsuna frowned at his words.

“Why do you care?” she asked, picking her bag up from the ground and moving towards the stairs, stepping around him with great grace.

Reboyama chuckled at her attitude.

“Can I not care about the psychological well-being of one of my landladies?” he asked, looking after her as she disappeared up the stairs.

“I’m not talking to you!” she called out, almost running the remaining way to her bedroom. Slamming the door behind her.

She did not feel like dealing with that man.

Not now.

* * *

_ **May 13** _

_ **Wednesday 2215** _

A test.

Her class was having a test for the first time since Tsuna returned from the hospital. The class was sitting in their seats with their screen pens in hand, some even twisting them as their nerves got the better of them, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Tsuna found that she was not a part of these people.

She felt surprisingly calm, even though she was well aware that her brain should have already started to crumble.

It was a strange thing, being reminded that she didn't have to worry about what had previously caused plenty of problems for her.

She could feel eyes on her.

Her classmates expecting her to suddenly revert back to the patterns they have come to associate with her.

A finger tapped her on the shoulder, making her turn around.

There sat Yamamoto, giving her one of his big smiles and holding up a thumb in that universal, good luck gesture.

Tsuna couldn't help the smile that spread over her mouth before turning back around.

* * *

_ **May 15** _

_ **Friday 2215** _

Apparently, the changes to the character everyone seemed to have believed was Sawada Tsunako was pushing her classmates to what they probably thought of as the brink of insanity.

She's been so different, which had made everyone watch her more, and because they watched her more, they couldn't help but notice that she noticed things all around her. Sometimes she didn't even need to see someone. It was like absolutely nothing surprised her even though many of her classmates have attempted to do so the past couple of days, trying to see if she would fall over like she would have done before she was shot.

It was like she had eyes at the back of her neck!

And so, that day, one of the members of the athletic division who was currently using an observation exercise on his tablet to help him with volleyball decided to see just how good at observation she really was.

During lunch, he ignored his friends and settled down in front of Tsuna causing the girl to frown at him in confusion.

The boy ignored the look and shoves his mirror screen in front of her face.

"Solve this." He ordered, making Tsuna frown even more.

Finally, the girl sighed, taking the screen from his hands and turned her attention towards the test displayed on it.

The whole class was well aware what that boy had been doing on his screen for several days straight, he'd almost been slaving over it trying to improve his observational skills, and so, they turned towards Tsuna's desk when they realized just what the boy is forcing her to do.

For several minutes, they just watched as Tsuna's fingers flew over the screen, light ringing sounds resonating from the device to indicate a breaking of the personal high-score before finally, Tsuna removed her fingers and handed the device back to her classmate.

He stared at the screen, wide-eyed, for several seconds.

"She beat my high-score…" he finally muttered. "With 10 000 points."

The class suddenly found themselves locked in place, eyes wide open as they stared at their seemingly useless classmate, watching her as she flexed her apparently tired fingers.

Yamamoto approached her from behind, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She only turned her face slightly in his direction.

"Wow." The athlete voiced, smiling at the girl. "Sawada."

Tsuna rolled her eyes before she focused on the ceiling.

"Are you really surprised?" she asked, knocking his hand off of her shoulder before she turned her torso around to face him more head-on than she did before. "I'm an artist, Yamamoto-san."

Her class frowned at her words, shocked that she would claim to be good at anything, until they heard Yamamoto give off an amused snort, putting his hand on her head to ruffle her hair.

"True."

He was confirming it?

Why was Yamamoto confirming that Dame-Tsuna was good at something?

The only one seemingly brave enough to ask the question on everyone's minds was Fujitaka Sasuke.

"Artist?"

Turning towards the other boy, Yamamoto only smiled even more. If that was even possible.

"Yeah!" he exclaimed, moving towards his own desk, digging through his bag before he pulled out a carefully folded piece of paper that looked as though it had been carefully preserved. Yamamoto turned back towards the class, carefully unfolding the paper. "Check this out." He turned the paper around, holding it out towards their classmates. "She gave it to me for my birthday."

Immediately, the class broke into absolute chaos, freaking out over the hand-drawn sketch Yamamoto was holding out, not to mention just how well made it was.

Tsuna rolled her eyes, leaning her head onto her knuckles.

Was it really that hard to believe she was good at something?

* * *

_ **May 20** _

_ **Wednesday 2215** _

It was the day.

The day when they were to have their tests returned to them, and kind of, sort of, the day the class were finally going to get the final proof that Sawada Tsunako really hadn't changed and she was still the same useless self that she's always been. They could still silently make fun of her, even though Yamamoto has expressed his desire for them all to treat Tsuna just like every other student.

Finally, the scores appeared on each of the student's desks, and everyone collectively threw a glance at Tsuna.

Said girl was staring at her desk-screen, eyes wide in shock.

46 %.

She'd passed the test.

It's not exactly a passing grade, but she didn't have to retake the test, and that was a big enough change that it left the whole class in a state of silent stupor.

The only one not really surprised was Yamamoto.

Eyes narrowed, the athlete made up his mind.

Bending forward, the athlete tapped the artist on the shoulder.

"Hey, Sawada." He spoke up, making the girl turn around towards him. "You still on those pills."

This made Tsuna frown, as well as several other members of their class as his question registered into their brains.

"Of course I am," Tsuna confirmed, thinking back to the two bottles that were currently chilling in her bag, waiting for lunch when she'd pull them out like she'd done every day since she first got them.

She still got the strangest feeling from them, but that didn't mean she wouldn't take them.

Frowning, Kondou Yuki rose slightly from her desk.

"What pills?" she asked, voice drenched in suspicion.

Tsuna rolled her eyes.

Did they think she was taking drugs now to make her scores better?

Apparently, Yamamoto caught onto this as well, as he stood up from his own chair, facing their class president with the fakest smile Tsuna had ever seen on his face.

"The pills the doctors gave her to help her brain." He explained, sounding as though it was the most obvious thing possible.

Which, Tsuna actually suspected that it was, seeing as she had just gotten out of the hospital. She actually would have been more surprised if she hadn't been prescribed some sort of medication.

That just showed how mean her classmates could be.

"Her… what?" Fujitaka asked, throwing a worried look to Tsuna.

Sighing, Tsuna reached out a hand to grab Yamamoto's wrist, but he shook her off.

"Yamamoto-san…" Tsuna tried, but it didn't look as though Yamamoto had any intention of stopping.

"Apparently, a part of her brain refused to develop when she was younger which gave her a function handicap." His smile slowly slipped away from his face with every word that escaped his mouth. "You know, not being able to think straight or tripping whenever she's focusing." He ended the sentence with a hard look directed at everyone that had actively made it their business to bring Tsuna down.

You could see the color draining from their faces.

"Oh yes." the athlete practically purred vindictively. "You've all been bullying a handicapped person."

* * *

For the class to find out that the so-called “favoritism” the teachers had shown her was because of a function handicap that no one had thought to find out about…

They didn’t feel at all proud of it.

They had felt (in their own twisted imaginations) as thought their treatment of the tiny girl was warranted, with the way she treated them and with the way she passed the classes without (seemingly) doing anything.

Now… they felt like shit.

* * *

_ **May 21** _

_ **Thursday 2215** _

She should have seen this coming.

She had noticed the looks thrown at her through the corridors as she walked between the classes. She could feel the heat of the gazes, the anger surrounding her as she moved through the school, but she'd never actually seen the people giving her those looks and with the patrols lining the corridors, she hadn't paid the looks any more attention than for whenever she felt them.

She prided herself on her observational skills, for nature's sake!

How could she have let her guard down!?

She had been walking home from school that day, stopping for a few seconds in front of a vending machine and ruffling through her bag in search of her wallet. The afternoon sun was glaring down at her, heating up the air around her even though it was only late May.

She had been having this strange feeling of dread ever since she had stepped out of the school gates, out of sight from the watchful eyes of patrolling prefects, but she hadn't paid any attention to it, too eager to get home, too hot to care.

Stars she wished she had done that now.

As her attention had been focused on the insides of her bad, and her ears had been filled with the sounds of her own things being shoved around inside of it, she never noticed the shadows or the multiple sounds of footsteps approaching her from where she'd just come from.

That is, not until one arm had wrapped itself around her upper-arms, and a hand slammed down over her mouth.

As her arms were suddenly pinned down at her sides, her bag fell out of her hands, making her belongings scatter over the pavement, the glossy cover of her favorite sketch-book blaring up at the sky in the light of the sun.

She tried, she really tried to get out of the arms but the more she moved, the more the person tightened his grip around her, clenching his fingers around her mouth the more noise she tried to make.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

Not just from the grip on her mouth but also because of the strain she felt on the stitches, the stitches that were just days away from being removed. She felt the bio-material loosen slightly from her skin.

"Well, well, well."

That voice, she knew that voice.

"What do we have here?"

Mochida Kensuke, her seventeen-year-old upperclassman stepped into her line of sight, his hands in his pockets and a look in his eyes like a predator, satisfaction, and something akin to hatred buried underneath it all, though why that look was warranted, Tsuna had no idea.

The kendo captain let his eyes wander over Tsuna's body, sizing her up, leaving unpleasant shivers running over every inch of her skin in their wake.

His mouth broke into a smirk.

"If it isn't the school looser." He chuckled, stepping closer to her.

Two pairs of laughter followed that comment.

Really? It… it wasn't even that funny.

Mochida leaned in close to her, close enough that she could feel his breath brushing over her nose.

Suddenly, she had to fight her lunch from crawling back up her throat.

When was the last time he brushed his teeth?

"You're surprisingly hard to catch, Dame," Mochida said, reaching out a hand to poke Tsuna under the chin, his dark eyes looking even more frightening up close.

Desperately, Tsuna tried to pry herself away from the men, she tried kicking, clawing, even biting, but seeing as her feet were now dangling in mid-air, she guessed that that would be impossible.

Seriously, just how strong is this guy?

"Oh, don't try to run," Mochida said slowly, almost purring. "After all, you brought this on yourself."

Tsuna froze, staring up at Mochida with wide eyes displaying her confusion.

Seeming to see said confusion, Mochida smirked, even more, running his finger down the skin of her neck, stopping at the collar of her blouse where he twisted his fingers into the fabric.

"You're stepping over your boundaries, Dame." He growled, getting even closer to her face. The only time Tsuna would ever be thankful that someone is covering her mouth with his hand. "Someone like you, hanging out with someone like Yamamoto Takeshi." Tsuna could feel the tightness of her collar around her neck, beginning to cut off her hair supply the more Mochida clutched at it. "It just won't do."

Suddenly, Mochida let go of Tsuna's blouse, stepping back to jerk his head down towards an alley.

An alley that Tsuna knew was a very deep dead-end usually filled with discarded cardboard boxes and housed a rather large trash bin.

Mochida walked first, allowing his "lackeys" to follow him.

They did, leaving Tsuna's things scattered over the asphalt.

It was then that Tsuna noticed the third member of the party, a tall lanky boy that she had seen every once in a while during archery practice on her way home from school.

Tsuna could feel the tears burning behind her eyes as Mochida stopped, gesturing with his hand.

The next thing Tsuna knew, she'd been violently thrown straight into the concrete wall, her fall broken somewhat by the pile of concrete boxes lining it.

Gasping in pain, worried that her stomach wound would re-open again, Tsuna turned to face the three men, revealing that the one to have held her was a tall man with a strong muscle build, obviously from the wrestling club.

What is the deal with the Athletic division and wanting to inflict physical damage to her?! If it hadn't been for Yamamoto she might have been traumatized to the point of refraining to be anywhere near any member of that division ever again.

Mochida marched right up to her, grabbing a large chunk of her hair and yanking her up to face him, making her bite down on her lip to keep the cry of pain in.

Crouching down in front of her, Mochida clicked his tongue.

"I don't know how you managed to work yourself into his circle, but it will end right now." He promised, tightening his hand in her head in a way that made her bend her head back, exposing her neck to him. "Someone needs to teach you a lesson on where you stand in the school food chain." He nodded along with his words, and a glance behind him showed Tsuna that his two friends were doing the same thing.

The school food chain?

What is this? A soap opera from the late 20th century?

"Afterward, maybe you can give me some of what you have given Yamamoto, huh?" Tsuna's eyes widened.

They… they believed that she was exchanging physical favors for Yamamoto to talk to her? How stupid are they or do they simply not keep up with the school rumor mill? Or maybe they did and just got a hold of the wrong rumor.

Suddenly, Tsuna found her face slammed straight into the cardboard under her.

The pain was absolutely excruciating, but she kept her lower lip firmly locked in between her two rows of teeth. Maybe a little too hard, she could feel a trail of something wet slipping down to her chin as she fell back against the cardboard, fingers clenched into tight fists, trying to keep her tears from falling.

She wasn't going to give them the pleasure of seeing her cry.

At least… not after this little.

The tingles were back, the tingles that had become so very frequent over the past few days. Ringing through the tips of her fingers, moving to the rest of her hands quicker than they have ever done before.

The tingling evolved into a major itching sensation when a kick landed at the side of her abdomen, and she felt the bio-material completely fall away from her skin.

Now, she was in danger.

Good thing she was too occupied panicking to properly register the itching in her hands.

She needed to get away from these men, but how was she going to do that?

She didn't know how to fight, she was already at a disadvantage with her height, and then there is the added danger of the still-healing hole in her stomach that she really, really didn't want to re-open. She doubted these men would think to call for an ambulance should they realize that her stomach was bleeding rapidly. In fact, they would probably dump her in the bin and leave her there to die.

Was it just her, or was the temperature rising even more than it was before?

A pair of hands clenched around her ankles, pulling her away from the cardboard so that she was lying with her back on the asphalt, several scrapes forming over her skin as she stared up at the three men looking down at her.

All three of them were smirking.

"Truly, this is all your fault, Dame," Mochida said, lifting his leg, preparing to bring it down on her stomach.

Thinking quickly, Tsuna curled herself in a way that her forearm took the kick instead of her abdomen. Surely, she'd be able to survive getting her arm broken, anything to keep her stomach wound from re-opening.

This reaction didn't seem to sit well with Mochida.

Bending down, he grabbed her by the hair again.

"You don't get to decide the target." He growled, slamming her head down onto the ground.

For a moment, everything became blurry, the lights too bright, and the hits that beat down on her didn't register as much, but that didn't mean that her body wasn't instinctively protecting the most vulnerable part of her.

Sweat was starting to drip down Tsuna's brow more like a tap that had been turned on that the small individual bead that it had been before.

Seriously, was she the only one feeling the heat? It was like sitting too close to a fire, or the highest of fevers one could ever imagine having when down with the flu.

Her brain seemed to return to normal, just as Mochida slammed down her shoulder, sitting down on top of her to straddle her stomach.

Something glimmered from the corner of her vision, and her blood froze.

A knife.

Mochida was holding a knife in his hand, slowly moving it up towards her neck. The other two men moved to pin down her arms and legs, leaving no room for her to turn as Mochida pressed the tip of the knife to the fragile skin wrapped around her throat.

Alright! Tsuna felt as though she was on fire, how was none of them feeling the heat?!

"You know…" Mochida muttered, brushing some of Tsuna's hair out of her eyes. "You may actually be too pretty." He mused. "I'll just have to make you fit your social status, should I?"

Before Tsuna knew what happened, Mochida had slashed the knife down the side of her neck. It had come so suddenly that Tsuna hadn't had time to brace herself for the pain, which resulted in her letting out a loud, ear ringing scream of terror and pain. It ha just wrenched itself out of her throat, her hand flying to clutch at the shallow slash, the blood already trickling through her fingers.

This pleased Mochida.

"That's more like it." He chuckled, leaning down over her. "Scream all you like, no one is going to hear you."

He raises the knife again, this time moving it closer towards her eyes, the glint in his eyes absolutely evil.

"No…" Tsuna wined through the stinging of her jaw, trying to wiggle herself out of their hold, but only found them tightening their grips to a bruising one.

As if she wouldn't already have enough of those.

Mochida's knife moved even closer to her skin.

"No." Tsuna wined a little louder, eyes widening and fear swelling at the sight of the knife's tip slowly lowering towards her light-brown orbs.

Mochida only chuckled, even more, Hand finding her bleeding jaw to keep her face still as he aimed his knife, lowering it, even more, seeming to aim directly at her left pupil.

The heat was absolutely stifling now, she could barely breathe like she was sitting inside of an over.

The knife was as good as touching Tsuna's eye when everything burst.

"NO!"

The first thing that had told her that something had happened was the sudden outburst of pain from the man holding down her wrists only for said grip on her wrists to drop, then, the knife was away from her line of sight, Mochida scrambling away from her, eyes wide in terror as he stared at her and soon, the third guy joined him

The fear was clear as Tsuna stared at them, and soon, they were sprinting away from the scene as though their lives depended on it.

Confused and in pain, Tsuna moved her free arm to push herself up, and it was then that she saw them.

Flames.

Bright orange flames lit up her hand, licking at her wrists. So bright in fact that it most likely had been impossible for the three men to have not noticed them, especially since their position had most likely burned the man holding down her arms, which explained the cry of pain.

Tsuna stared at the flames in silent terror, watching as they grew bigger and bigger.

Noticing a strange light from the corner of her eye, she yanked her other hand away from her neck, finding that too engulfed in bright orange fire, burning the blood between her fingers. She could already tell that the fires had burned the blood at the cut of her neck.

At least she wasn’t bleeding any more.

Slowly, the flames started spreading over the rest of her hands, climbing down her wrists, only growing more and more bright as they went, more fierce. And yet, she still couldn't feel any heat from them.

Had she become so scared that her brain has blocked away the sensation of her combusting into flames?

Wait… that, that's not possible.

This was even more frightening than anything she'd ever been through.

In a panic, Tsuna tried to stand up, only to fall over and catch herself on a wooden crate that was loitering in the alley.

The fire started instantly.

It started with just the one crate burning, but it soon spread over to the cardboard boxes and whatever it was within the bin, surrounding her in the bright orange fire, locking her in the alley.

Everything was ablaze.

The fear took over, she started screaming at the top of her lungs, frantically spinning around in the chaos, mind not working enough for her to try and figure out a way to save herself.

The fires were almost covering her whole arms now.

Trying to get away from the flames, Tsuna found herself on the ground again, her back pressed up as tightly as she could against the concrete wall, staring at the fires raging around her.

Her screams had long since turned hoarse.

It was her fault, she'd started the fires, fires originating from her own skin.

She could feel the fires eating away at her clothes.

So this was where she was going to die huh?

She'd survived getting shot in the stomach, only to die from spontaneous combustion.

Tears started streaming down her face only to evaporate in the heat that radiated all around her.

She was never going to see her mother again.

Or her father.

Or Yamamoto.

A small chuckle escaped Tsuna even as the tears still streamed.

She would even be happy to see that teacher again at this moment.

Just then, she spotted something through the flames.

A shadow.

A man.

A tall, lean man dressed in a familiar-looking expensive black suit, sporting a matching black fedora at the top of his head. She couldn't see his face but she didn't need to.

Reboyama Kidou.


	6. Suspicions Confirmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsuna wants answers and she's going to get them.  
A few of them at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took some time to get this chapter out!  
I'm having some trouble with the writing program I had been using up until a few days ago so I kinda had to figure out how to reach what I had already written as well as re-write what I lost.  
It has been a real bitch.  
Anyway, I have managed to do something, and I hope I managed to catch most of the errors. Please tell me if I didn't.  
Enjoy.

For a long moment, Tsuna could do little more than stare at the teacher in open shock, momentarily forgetting the bright flames still licking at her skin, devouring the closest patches of fabric that made up her uniform.

Slowly, the towering man stepped through the flame, weaving through the roaring fires as though they were merely the no-name people you pass on the sidewalk on your way to somewhere important. For some reason, it didn’t look as though the heat or the fact that the two of them were surrounded by a rapidly expanding blazing inferno was bothering him, almost brushing off the flames' attempts at latching onto the fabric of his expensive-looking, perfectly pressed suit, looking just as pristine as it always managed to appear.

The teacher didn’t pause for even a second as he marched straight up to where she was still pressed up against the concrete wall behind her, burning arms held out in front of her as she stared at the approaching figure, his dark eyes not revealing any form of emotion that could have told Tsuna exactly what he was thinking.

He was completely stoic. No emotion to read. The fluid movements of his body being the only indicator that he wasn’t actually some kind of expertly crafted android.

The closer the teacher got, the more Tsuna found herself unconsciously press herself even further up against the concrete wall behind her. It wasn't until she could feel the pain of her skin being scraped as she moved that she realized what she was doing, but she didn't stop.

There was something about that emotionless look that sent alarm bells screaming in her head.

Funny how they decided to turn on when the man that has been living under her family roof arrived and not when her hands suddenly lit themselves on fire.

"Reboyama-sensei…?" she found herself muttering as the man came closer.

Slowly, the teacher crouched down in front of her, his emotionless eyes locking with her own, fiercely holding them in place as he opened her mouth.

"Calm down." He spoke, deep voice steady and the relaxed undertone washed over her.

Still… if he'd thought that would be all it took for her to calm down, then he had another thing coming with the way the alarms were still blaring inside of her head, no one reacted well to being told to calm down for purity's sake!

The teacher took a deep breath, allowing the slightest tinge of annoyance to seep onto his face.

"No." he firmly ordered, eyebrows furrowing as he leaned just a bit closer to her, obviously minding the flames that seemed to be ages away from ever dying. "Listen to me." He locked his eyes with her’s again, allowing himself to show the urgency that he had obviously kept from her earlier. "You need to calm down."

Slowly, the alarms began to quiet down at the emotion drawing forth onto the teacher’s face.

Apparently, someone being able to block any and all emotion from being shown on their face was something that Tsuna's instincts did not take kindly to and so they reacted rather violently at the sight of something that definitely shouldn't be possible naturally.

Something like that had to be trained.

Why it had to be trained…

Whatever it was couldn’t be good.

No matter how hard anyone tries, one’s true emotions should be able to show in body language, the color of their faces, or even the glint in their eyes. But this teacher's eyes never revealed anything.

It was like trying to read the emotions of a corpse.

No wonder the alarms.

The fear still raged through her tiny body, the heat of the flames not allowing her to follow the man's instructions.

"I…" she breathed, voice shaking as she tried to gather the words. "I can't…"

"Tsunako." The teacher sternly told her, successfully stopping the babbling before it even started. "Right now, you're trying to put out a fire with gasoline." Despite everything that was going on, Tsuna found herself frowning at the strange metaphor the man had come up with, not to mention the unfathomable amount of understanding said metaphor brought forward. "Calm down!"

"I'm on fire!" Tsuna found herself screaming in a strange mix of annoyance and terror. "How can I calm down!?"

For a long moment, the teacher looked hesitant, looking away from her with his eyes closed before his expression set in a fierce determination. His hands shot out, grabbing hold of Tsuna's furiously burning wrists.

"NO!" She screamed furiously, desperately trying to yank her hands away from him, but his grip made it like she was trying to yank them out of concrete shackles. "What are you doing!?"

He kept his eyes locked with hers, his face not contorting into pain like she would have expected. It forced her to calm down enough to not scream, but her breaths still came out in hiccups.

Glancing down, a gasp tore its way through her throat.

His hands…

His hands weren't reacting to the flames.

His skin wasn't turning black, red, charring or any other thing that she suspected skin would react when coming in contact with direct fire for a longer period of time. Despite anything, his skin remained flesh-colored.

On closer inspection, she did notice a small twitch in his eye to indicate that he actually was affected by the heat.

"Calm down, or your flames are going to eventually eat away at my hands." The man almost hissed as she stared at him in open shock at what he was doing. "Everything is going to be fine if you just calm down." He yanked at her wrists to force her to pay attention to his face and not his hands. "Breathe with me."

Nodding slowly, Tsuna closed her eyes, allowing herself to listen to the teacher’s heavy breathing. Each deep intake of air filling up her lungs before letting her chest deflate in a slow exhale.

Slowly, she felt the pace of her heart level out.

Eventually, she didn't need to force her breath to come out evenly.

The heat began to seep away from her direct premises, leaving behind little more than an irritating and persistent tingling sensation that probably would have been much more annoying had she not been so relieved at the absence of the heat.

Finally, she was calm.

"That's it…" the teacher breathed, slowly letting go of her wrists. "Open your eyes."

It took some time, but Tsuna was finally capable of doing as he asked.

They were gone.

The fires were gone, leaving nothing but her slightly raw, naked skin in its place.

Of course, the fire around them was still raging on, but she couldn't bring herself to care about them, her attention was solely locked onto her flame-free limbs.

As she tried to keep herself from crying in relief, turning her hands around to get a good look at her palms, the teacher rose up from the ground, studying the roaring fire before the sound of ruffling fabric brought Tsuna out of her relieved disbelief, forcing her to look up at him.

He'd taken off his jacket, holding it down to her as he almost pointedly refused to look at her.

"Put it on." He said, looking very much like a colored statue with how little he was moving, not even a twitch. "You can't go home in the state you're in."

The state she was in?

Confused, Tsuna glanced down at herself, past her hands.

Knowing now what such things might do to her, Tsuna had to keep herself from screaming.

She could actually still feel the flames churning underneath her skin, just waiting for the one moment she lost control and rage once again.

Her clothes were absolutely ruined, burned to a little more than charred, shredded remains, covered in burns and ash, some patches still burning or sparking in dying embers, things she was forced to quickly bat away with her own hands, which actually made to ruin her blouse even more than it was before. Her bra was just barely spared, her body was covered in ash, bruises, and dried blood, and yet, there wasn't one single spot on her naked skin that showed any form of burn that she had been so sure she would have been covered in.

She looked like she was dressing up as a burnt victim but someone had forgotten the wound prosthetics to complete the illusion.

Well… apart from the cut on her neck.

At least the flames had forced that to stop bleeding before it could become something of a problem.

Even if it hadn’t actually opened the major artery…

Anyway!

This wasn't possible.

Was she going crazy?

No… that couldn't be right…

She glanced around her at the still-raging fires surrounding them, the heat of said flames feeling considerably less warm than they had been when directly on her skin, but it was definitely there.

They were definitely there.

Hesitating, Tsuna reached out and snatched the jacket from the teacher's grasp, quickly holding the piece of cloth in front of her chest like the only piece of protection she would be able to get in this situation.

And it probably was.

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at the teacher.

She most likely would have been blushing furiously had she not been white-faced from terror at the moment.

"How is this possible?" she asked slowly, fingers clenching around the strangely textured fabric held to her chest. She had spoke more to herself than anyone else. Taking a deep breath, she spoke again, looking intently at the teacher. "What's happening to me?"

He knew.

He had to know.

He obviously had a better idea of what was happening to her than she did.

"I can't answer that right now." The man answered quickly. At her frown, he let out a sigh of annoyance, shaking his head before he glanced out through the flames. "It's not a conversation for a burning alley." He explained.

Reaching down, he grabbed hold of her arm.

It was a gentle enough grab, but the mere factor that her skin was still very raw from the flames caused her to flinch at the contact, pain rushing through her arm as the man pulled her up to her feet, making sure that the jacket wouldn't fall from her hands.

However, standing up wasn’t as easy as she would have liked, her knees buckling under her weight the second she got up.

She hadn’t realized just how exhausted she was.

"Come on." The teacher spoke, much quieter than he had done before. "Let's get you home." He glanced out through the fires into the opening of the alley. "I can hear the AESD closing in, and we need to be gone before they arrive."

That she could understand.

She could definitely understand it.

There was absolutely no way the two of them could possibly explain the state she was in considering where they would be found. She had a rather vivid image of how they could or even would react to the sight of her, she had many of them, and most of them would end up with her in some kind of laboratory.

No… not going to happen.

Turning her back to the teacher, Tsuna allowed her grip on the jacket to loosen, allowing herself to slip her slender arms into the sleeves of the strange, almost skin-like material, buttoning up the whole thing. It didn't surprise her when she found herself almost drowning in the size of the garment, the length of which ending at her mid-thigh and the sleeves almost entirely covering her hands.

But, as it covered up her now almost non-existent blouse, she didn't complain.

A pair of hands landed just below her shoulders, turning her around to see the teacher. He gave off this certain air of anxiety, something that Tsuna soon joined in on as the AESD sirens slowly reached her ears.

Hand once again returning to her arm, the teacher steered her out of the alley.

They wandered straight through the flames, once again, acting as though they weren't even there, even though they were desperately trying to latch onto her socks but apparently, they weren't all that successful as the two of them managed to step out onto the street with no stubborn flames eating away at what remained of her clothing.

Soon enough, the two of them entered the spot in which Tsuna had first been taken.

It was strange for Tsuna to see the place after having been surrounded by fire, and she became even more curious about the teacher when he bent down to pick up her bag from the ground. At a place where she knew she hadn't dropped it. She frowned a bit at the sight as she could have sworn that her belongings had spilled out of the thing when she'd dropped it, but everything was perfectly packed.

Walking with a hand on her shoulder blades and her bag thrown over his shoulder, the two of them moved down the street, trying to appear as though nothing was wrong despite her body covered in bruises and dried blood, despite her hair being even messier than it has ever been, and despite the torn and burnt state of her socks.

Before long, the Automatic Environment Safety Department vehicle zoomed past them were walking, but thankfully, the sensors on the vehicle didn't pick up on the fire residue that was most likely lingering on Tsuna's beaten body.

They did catch some attention from the people they passed, but thankfully, they didn't decide to do anything.

Most likely, it was due to the fact that she was being led by a man she was more or less clinging to, a man who had obviously given her his jacket. So whatever had happened had obviously already been dealt with and she was in no more need of any help.

It was strange, having to trust the man she'd been very wary of since the moment he had arrived at her doorstep.

But… he knew what was happening to her.

She had no other choice but to trust him.

She would let him talk, but she reminded herself that she would always have the right to refuse anything he might try and make her do.

She would not do anything without having been given a solid enough explanation.

* * *

A few minutes later, the two of them finally stopped in front of the Sawada Household.

Before Tsuna could reach out towards the gate with her hand, Reboyama stopped her, turning her towards him instead, bending forward to meet her eyes in a way that she wouldn't have to strain her neck.

"Go inside, go to your room, lock the door and focus on your breathing." His words were an order, and yet his tone was distinctively gentle, still, she could feel the fear building up inside of her. The pressure of her flames increasing underneath her skin, like a shaken soda bottle just waiting for the cap to be loosened.

Half-panicked, Tsuna found her voice.

"Where are you going?"

"Stay calm." The teacher quickly ordered the soon-to-be frantic girl whilst giving her a sharp shake to momentarily shock her out of her frightened state. "I'll be back within an hour at the very most, so you will have to remain calm on your own for as long as you can."

The strange look in the man's eyes made Tsuna frown despite the fear still bubbling inside of her.¨

"What are you going to do?" she asked quietly, almost scared to know the answer.

Her question earned her a curious look from the man.

They didn't know one another, he had made several attempts to try and get to know her but she had always pushed him away every time he tried. Even the ink hadn't done much to make her lighten up around him, and yet she had managed to somehow tell some sort of intent on him with one look.

The revelation of that one skill the girl possessed almost made the man smirk.

"It's best if you don't know." The man answered, the corner of his mouth twitching as he stepped away from her. "You just remain calm and I'll be back as fast as I can."

Stepping away was probably his worst decision at the moment, for the moment the distance between them was pushing a meter, her breaths started to come out in more hectic, hiccuping spasms, borderline hyperventilating as he took yet another step.

Quickly, he was back in front of her.

"Breathe." He ordered, more firmly this time. "You'll do fine." He then gestured to the house with a jerk of his head once he noticed the terrified girl had gotten her breaths in more of less control. "Now go, try and make yourself as familiar and surrounded by elements of comfort as possible."

He didn't leave any room for debate, turning around and walking away from her, leaving her in front of the gates of her house with her fingers tightly clenched around the straps of her school-bag as she desperately tried to keep her breathing in order like the teacher had instructed.

Slowly, Tsuna allowed her one hand to loosen in order to open the gate as she moved towards the house, each step looking even more painful than the one that had come before it.

Once entering the house, it didn't take long before Nana came out from the kitchen and spotted the state her daughter was in.

For once in her life, Tsuna had hoped that the woman had been pulled away to the bakery.

She’d been attempting to pull away a bit from her active role, wanting to focus more on the actual baking part of the business than the… well… business part.

It was a slow process.

Especially considering Sakura was still… Sakura.

Tsuna knew her mother, she may not be all that close to her but she knew her. She blocked her mind from her mother's frantic questions, moving swiftly past her towards the staircase, expertly avoiding the older woman's flailing limbs as she tried to stop her in order to get an answer out of her.

Tsuna didn't want to talk.

She didn't think she could talk.

She almost ran up the stairs, sprinting to her bedroom where she threw the door open, bolting it behind her and for extra security, using voice command to ensure that her mother wouldn't be able to access the automatic emergency unlock system in order to get in.

She shouldn't have rushed, that really hadn't been a good idea.

The fires were now pulsing underneath her skin.

Gasping to keep her breaths at least moderately level, Tsuna pulled herself up the stairs and walked over to the bedside table as she almost yanked the pendant from her neck. Gently, she picked up the no-doubt priceless music-box from the surface and inserted the side of the pendant into the keyhole, giving it a good amount of turns before letting it go.

Thankfully, the pendant hadn't become disfigured in the heat of the fire.

She wouldn't have known what to do if she hadn't been able to wind up the music box again.

The carousel immediately began spinning to the light, soothing melody that filled the room, the movement of the device in her hands sending a nostalgic ease echoing throughout her body, the melody itself filling her senses with the cooling calm that they had so desperately needed.

With a heavy sigh, Tsuna settled down on top of her bed, eyes still pinned on the spinning figurine.

Memories of when she was younger filled her head, from younger than five and older than seven, the times she had spent with her father after he had come home from work one day and handed her that very music-box. He'd wind it up every night and allowed the melody to wash over the both of them before he had begun singing on the lullaby the melody had gone with, his deep husky tone sounding rather odd with the light nature of the melody but Tsuna could still recall herself falling asleep to the sound.

She didn't know the lullaby. He had stopped singing it when she was about six and it had been in Italian so there was no way her young mind would be able to translate the text to Japanese, she couldn't even remember the words, merely the general sound of them.

Her mind and heart filled with the memory, Tsuna allowed herself to collapse onto the bed, gently settling the music-box back onto it's designated spot as she snatched Shiro-bunny from the edge of the mattress, holding the plushy tightly to her chest as she allowed herself to cry in the aftershock of what had happened.

It was too much.

Why did it have to be her?

"Papa…" she whispered slowly into the room, not wanting her voice to over-voice the melody. "What's happening to me?"

* * *

43 minutes had passed since Tsuna came home.

And for the entirety of those 43 minutes, Nana had been pacing back and forth in front of her daughter's door, the first five of said minutes having been spent furiously banging on said door in a desperate attempt to get her child to open up and let her in, to talk about what had happened.

But alas, Tsuna had refused the woman who gave birth to her any entry.

What could have possibly happened to mess the girl up this much? Nana had seen her come home in a mess before but she had never been in that much of an emotional mess, always insisting that Nana would drop it every time she would insist on calling the principal to put an end to everything the students put her through.

Tsuna had always said that getting through the day proved that she was stronger than they believed her to be.

And Nana had seen that.

Her daughter was strong, much stronger than any other teen she'd seen enter her bakery.

To see her strong little wild-flower so broken and de-thorned like that…

Nana furiously nibbled at her thumbnail as she paced, mind racing at the many different possible scenarios her beloved daughter could have gone through to have ended up in that state, one even worse than the other.

There was one scenario however that she absolutely refused to put on her long list of possibilities.

At one point, she even found herself outside of her daughter's door, knocking.

“Tsu-chan…!” she called out, but she received no answer.

She knocked again.

“Tsu-chan, Sweetheart?” she asked again, leaning her ear against the wood, seeing if she could hear anything from the other side, but all she heard was the light, soothing melody of the lullaby Iemitsu used to sing to Tsuna when she was younger.

This only served to worry Nana even more.

If she was playing that, it definitely, definitely, wasn’t good.

She was getting desperate.

“Hey!” she called out, forcing a cheerful tone as she knocked once again. “How about you and I whip up some dill dip and find something to watch that we can complain about how unrealistic it is?” she forced a smile to her mouth, putting her hand against the wood. “When was the last time we had a TV night huh?”

No answer.

“Sweetheart?” her voice almost broke at the silence.

She swallowed her worry, allowing herself to nod.

“Alright...” she breathed, pushing herself away from the door. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me, okay?”

Once again, there was no answer.

* * *

The sound of the front door opening down-stairs knocked Nana out of her thoughts, her attention snapping away from her daughter's bedroom-door to the staircase, the brown eyes she shares with her darling little girl hardening at the knowledge of who had just returned.

Her daughter hadn't come home alone, the jacket she had been wearing proved that.

Anger boiled up inside of the woman's admittedly small stature as she rushed down the hallway, almost jumping down the entire staircase, landing just in time to see the teacher close the front door behind him.

"Reboyama-sensei!" the tiny woman bellowed as she stormed over to the teacher. "What the hell happened to my daughter!?" she screamed her question right in the man's stupidly handsome face.

Of course, her Iemitsu was several times more handsome.

"Sawada-san…" the man breathed as he took off his hat, his long fingers running through his already messy hair all the while an exhausted sigh slipped from him.

"You sure you want to know that?"

Nana watched, fury rising inside of her as the man put the hat back on, making her take note of his lack of jacket and his rolled-up sleeves, though otherwise, he didn’t look any less pristine. She shook her head to get her mind back on track.

He was trying to throw her off?

Was he seriously trying to make her change the subject?

The rage inside of her just kept building, pushing to the breaking point.

Nana was not the kind of woman that would fall for any form of trick of that nature.

"Reboyama-sensei…" Nana found herself almost growling as her face formed into a glare that she directed at the man in front of her. "I watched my daughter, my only child, walk through that door almost 45 minutes ago looking as though she'd just been run over by a hover-vehicle!" she pointed a frantic finger towards the staircase before she screamed at the top of her lungs. "WHAT HAPPENED!?"

The teacher looked her over for a moment before he sighed again, putting his hands into his pockets.

"I'm not really sure." He answered, making Nana drop her hand. "I found her like that in an empty alleyway on the way back from the school." He didn't look at the woman as he moved to roll down his sleeves.

The action cause Nana to briefly wonder what had made him roll them up in the first place.

Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle that had presented itself to Nana the moment Tsuna had come home began to fall into place, and if her anger could become even worse than it already was than it just did.

"Those fucking bastards…" she growled, surprising the teacher at both her curse and the absolutely murderous expression that now took over her normally gentle, kind, and happy features. "She's just starting to piece her life together and those human toxins go and do that to her!?" the woman stomped her foot, her fist clenching at her sides as her whole being spoke of silent murder.

For a moment, Reboyama honestly feared for the lives of the perpetrators.

His lip twitched, his smirk almost slipping onto his face at the woman's reaction.

"Sawada-san." He spoke up once he finally got control of his facial muscles, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder to make her turn back towards him. "Please calm down." He spoke much like he had done with her daughter just over an hour earlier.

"How can I!?" The woman screamed in a reaction that almost perfectly mirrored the reaction of her child. "My daughter is broken!"

Much to her annoyance, the teacher rolled his eyes at her words.

"No, she's not." He argued firmly, emotionless eyes piercing her own. "If she's your daughter, then you should know that she's must stronger than that." His voice was almost annoyed, the fact that his eyes were still locked with hers starting to make the Japanese woman uncomfortable. "She just needs someone to remind her of that fact."

Taking a few deep breaths, Nana felt her anger slowly fading away.

Body shaking, she joined her hands together in front of her before allowing them to fall against her skirt, she resigned herself to the words she would have to force out of her mouth no matter how much she really, really didn't like them.

But truth be told, she didn't have any other option.

"Then you'll have to talk to her." She mumbled out with a heavy sigh, shoulders trembling under his hand. "She won't even let me into the room." Her voice hiccuped as she spoke, her eyes clenched as she desperately tried to keep herself from crying.

"That was my intention." The teacher stated before he rounded the woman and made his way towards the stairs behind her, only to stop before he took the first step up.

"Don't worry." He said, not turning around towards her. "I'm her teacher now, I can take care of her when in school."

Nana's thumbnail once again found its way between her teeth.

"Please do." She whispered, watching as the teacher started walking once again, disappearing up the stairs.

Once again, Nana felt absolutely useless where her own daughter was concerned.

* * *

Reboyama stood in front of Tsuna's bedroom door, looking at the artistic name-plate as he tried the doorknob. Of course, he found that the door was bolted from inside, no doubt to keep her mother out. He wouldn't be surprised if any and all automatic emergency unlock systems were disabled as well.

Well, the teacher was not her mother.

Speaking of said mother, he could feel her eyes digging into his back from where she was watching him from the top of the stairs behind him.

Releasing an annoyed sigh, he raised his hand to firmly rap on the door.

"Tsunako." He called out into the silence of the other room, his voice definitely coming in muted on the other side. He could only hope that she actually heard him. "Open the door."

Sure enough, it barely took more than a few seconds before the sound of the door softly unlocking rang through the air, allowing the teacher to open the door and step inside, only for it to immediately lock up again once he closed it behind him.

A good move, he thought, as there was no telling whether or not Nana would try to enter after Reboyama had entered.

For a moment, the teacher just stood there, allowing himself to listen before he moved, and what he heard caused his eyes to momentarily widen.

That melody… it couldn't be, could it?

Walking up the stairs, the first thing the teacher noticed was the messy head of golden-brown hair buried among the multiple soft pillows lying at the top of her bed, her arms tightly wrapped around the white plush rabbit as her legs pulled up so that her tiny body took on the form of a rather curved N.

He could feel that the room was a lot hotter than it usually was, a clear indicator that the girl's nerves weren't entirely within her control.

He threw a glance towards the bedside table where the music-box was located, the porcelain carousel figurine slowly spinning as the device released that gentle tune into the room.

Her father must have gifted her with that…

"Your mother's really worried about you, you know." The teacher stated as he stepped up to the bed, watching as her slender shoulders drew in even further around the plush rabbit. He could practically feel the heat radiating off of her, just waiting for the moment where she would lose control of her emotions and burst free.

"I think she would be even more worried if I were to burst into flames right in front of her." The girl shot right back at him, her voice coming out muffled through the plushies head.

The teacher watched as the girl allowed one eye to be visible, an eye holding a surprisingly steady look.

"Talk."

Her voice held the undertone of an order.

A voice that put the teacher in a situation in which he had to fight in order to keep his smirk at bay.

With a little work, she would be more than capable of surviving.

Crouching down in front of Tsuna, ignoring the questioning look on her face as he reached out his hand, gently grabbing hold of her chin in order to gently turn her head to the side, he carefully studied the clogged up cut on her neck. Letting his eyes wander over the visible bruises.

“Is your bullet wound bothering you?” he asked, glancing down to her stomach.

“No.” she answered stiffly. “I do have SOME luck.”

She shocked him by hitting his hand away from her face, eyes narrowing.

“Do not try and change the subject.”

He had to fight his smirk once again.

"What do you want to know?" he asked, keeping the amusement away from his voice.

The teacher watched as her fingers clenched around the plushie, once again burying her face into its head as she took one deep breath after the other, her legs drawing in even closer to her torso. The heat surrounding her body began to once again build at a frightening pace.

"What happened back there?" she asked, voice shaking.

"Nothing to worry about." The teacher answered calmly.

Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say as the temperature spiked within seconds. As black eyes moved over the girl, delicate-looking hands started to glow a bright orange color.

Quickly, the teacher settled himself down on the bed, the mattress dipping down violently enough to make Tsuna's tiny body shake from the movement. The man grabbed hold of her shaking wrists, violently yanking them from where they had been wrapped around the plushie that was just moments away from meeting its end.

"Tsunako, look at me." The man ordered, turning the girl around as he yanked her into a sitting position, forcing her to do what he asked of her. "What you're going through is completely natural."

Tsuna's eyes widened in what could have been confused for shock, but otherwise, her face seemed to be contorted in a strange kind of glare as she stared at the man in front of her.

"Natural?" she repeated, voice laced with a silent kind of disbelief. "What part of spontaneously combusting and coming out without a blemish could possibly be considered natural!?" her voice grew and grew in volume with each word that passed through her lips, and then…

Her fingertips sparked.

It was a visible enough spark that both of their attentions immediately snapped to her hands, and the sight really didn't help with Tsuna's already frazzled nerves.

Immediately, the teacher moved his hands to her upper arms, giving her a shake.

"Breathe." He ordered, looking her firmly in the eyes. "You're right." He added, now sounding a lot more calming than he did before. "It's not natural." He agreed, but the tone he was using told Tsuna that there was more to it than that, and she was right. "For anyone outside of your bloodline."

This caught Tsuna off guard.

Momentarily forgetting her fear, she blinked at the man.

"Wha-?" he didn't allow her to finish.

"Tell me, Tsunako." The teacher said, hands moving away from her upper arms, though he kept his eyes firmly locked with hers. "Have you ever been burned?"

Again, all Tsuna found herself capable of doing, was blink.

"What?"

The teacher wasted no time in enlightening her.

"Have you ever reached out to touch a flame when you were younger, or put your hand on a stove when it was on, or even picked up a cookie that had just come out of the over?" he looked her deep in the eyes, looking almost desperate for her answer. "Have you ever experienced the feel of extreme heat?"

Tsuna opened her mouth on reflex, almost rolling her eyes as she prepared herself to tell him that, of course, she had, but to her surprise, the words caught in her throat. She couldn't get them out, and the more she thought about what he had asked her, the more difficult finding the words became.

She didn't remember much from when she was younger, but she did know for a fact that, even though she knew that she shouldn't touch fire or anything really hot as to not develop the serious injuries that could sometimes open the skin if it was bad enough like she had seen on Sakura a multitude of times or any other employee at the Crescent Bakery through the years, she couldn't recall one time when she herself had that type of injury.

And yet… one time, when she was nine, she had accidentally moved to take out a pan from the oven, forgetting to put on oven-mitts in her rush to get to decorate the cake. Her mother had absolutely panicked when she'd seen her and rushed her over to the sink where she ran cold water over her hands for what felt like half an hour, spending the entire time comforting her, calling her brave and strong for not crying out in pain when she'd touched the pan like anyone else would have done.

Except…

She hadn't been in pain.

She had stood there feeling her hands almost go numb under the ice-cold water feeling absolutely confused as to why her mother had reacted the way she'd done.

It wasn't until days later when Sakura did the same thing that she'd realized how she should have reacted and she refrained from trying to take anything out of the oven ever since.

Now that she knew this… she felt as though she had missed out on an important childhood experience.

Slowly, other memories returned to her.

Playing directly with candle flames and wax for hours only for her mother to chew her out because she could, "hurt herself", and she had been confused then too because, at most, it had felt like moving her fingertips through something lighter than water but thicker than steam.

The first time she'd really felt any form of heat was when her arms were burning, and even then, now that she thought back on it, even that experience hadn't been painful.

Finally, she looked back up at the man.

"No…" she answered, voice low, eyes wide in disbelief.

The teacher nodded at her response.

"I thought so." He stated, lip twitching a little. "Everyone on your father's side of the family has a greater resistance towards heat and fire than what normal people would consider natural." He watched with satisfactory as Tsuna's brown eyes widened. "Of course, just how resistant they are depends on how direct the ancestry, but it is still there." He leaned closer to Tsuna, a strange glimmer in those onyx orbs that made Tsuna feel a bit uncomfortable. "I suspect that you have a lot more energy than anyone in your class right?"

That was an understatement and something that she'd figured out herself a long time ago.

Several days when going to school, no matter how little sleep she'd gotten the night before, she always managed to keep up her usual behavior whilst blinking at the students who had gotten a lot more sleep than her almost falling out of their chairs after their desks automatically forced them awake when they leaned over them.

She'd never been dead-tired unless she'd been awake for days on end, but she'd never been really bothered by it, in fact, it was welcomed.

"Yes…" she slowly answered the man.

Now, he openly smirked.

"Another perk of your bloodline." He stated. "It is suspected that is it to make sure your family's energy sources don't burn out as quickly as someone else's would have." He gave a brief gesture with his hand in the air. "See." He said, sounding less serious than before. "To you, it is completely natural."

Despite herself, Tsuna found herself nodding to his words.

"The only real downside to this trait with be the increased sensitivity to foreign materials and rough touches." His hand shot out to gently grab her by the forearm, holding it up as the sleeve of the blazer slid down to reveal her skin littered with horrible-looking colorful spots. "Bruises are easily formed." He stated as he pulled the sleeve back up, covering up the bruising again before he smirked up at her. "You're basically all spawning from that pea-princess in that short fairy-tale."

The princess and the pea. He's making jokes now?

"Th-that doesn't explain the fires." Tsuna forced the words out of her, stuttering slightly from the force and shaking violently at the last word even though she had been the one to say it.

That wiped the smirk from his face.

"Right, the fires." He repeated, despite clearly noticing the tremor that shot through the girl sitting in front of him at the word. "It is actually the last stage of a three-level power source." He explained, holding up three fingers in the air. "A more generalized term for the flames on their own is actually," his eyes narrowed as he paused for effect. He must be doubling as a drama-queen somewhere. "Raw Anima."

A mix of Italian and Japanese, a language that Tsuna was more than acquainted with, not to mention fluent, so it took no time at all for her to translate the word in her head.

"Raw Soul?"

"Yes." The man answered immediately, sounding quite pleased that she knew the word. "We call it that because that's what it is." He explained, a short frown flashing over his face. “Though it is much easier to just call them either Flames or Fires is less formal situations.” he quickly returned to the subject at hand. "Anima, in principle, is the manipulation and utilization of your soul's energy, and Raw Anima, is the materialization of said soul." He put a hand in front of his chest, almost as if he was trying to point on exactly where the soul was located. "Everyone in your father's bloodline are naturally connected to this power." He let his hand fall back down. "Of course, not everyone is capable of actually producing it, but everyone is born with the potential of it." His eyes narrowed as he stared off into the air, his demeanor turning annoyed. "Some of them simply don't want to activate it."

Tsuna found herself frowning.

It sounded as though the man was personally offended that someone would not want to activate a power such as the one running through her bloodline.

But, for the moment, Tsuna couldn't bring herself to care.

"Then how come I didn't get this choice?" she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

Leaning back, the man let out a sigh.

"Sometimes, one isn't given." He looked at her with an expression that spoke more than she could gather in such a short period of time. "During times of great emotional stress, a Cuor DiLeone can be forced to awaken instinctively in order to protect themselves." He gazed at her almost pointedly as he said this, and this time, Tsuna understood the meaning behind the look perfectly.

Also…

Cuor DiLeone.

The sudden pure Italian words rushed over Tsuna, filling her with the strangest sense of almost foreboding familiarity.

"Lionheart?" she repeated, eyebrows furrowing. "What's with all the Italian?"

The man only smirked again at her knowledge.

"Cuor DiLeone is the term of which the people of your bloodline is referred to as a whole." He explained, leaning forward again, resting his arms onto his knees. "DiLeone, being the last name the majority of your family and ancestry go by to more or less declare their lineage." He shook his head, giving Tsuna the impression of annoyance once again. "It's quite difficult to tell the main branched from the side ones anymore because of this." He glanced at her from the corner of his eye once the explanation was done. "You didn't know you were Italian?"

"Of course I knew I was part Italian." Tsuna quickly defended herself. "But a different name?" the man nodded. "I still have relatives there?"

The man raised an eyebrow.

"Why yes." He answered. "Quite a few of them in fact, you're so spread out it's impossible to keep track of you all should one find the need for it."

For a long moment, Tsuna just sat there, staring.

She had been begging both of her parents to tell her about their extended family for years but the both of them had never wanted to tell her a word, and now she suddenly discovers that she's got a small army of relatives on her father's side in a different country?

How does this happen?

Shaking her head, she gathered up as much composure as she could.

"You keep repeating the word 'ancestry'." She pointed out, giving the man a look as though daring him to brush it off.

Thankfully, he did no such thing.

"I am." He answered as though it were as easy as breathing.

"Why?"

The teacher took a deep breath, silently telling Tsuna that this was going to take a while.

"The flames were first introduced to the world 400 years ago by the founder of your bloodline, Giotto DiLeone." He began. "He was well respected in his time even without the power he possessed and he mostly used it whenever it was deemed absolutely necessary. According to records, when he did use it, he was a force to be reckoned with." He stared off into space again. "It is described that the silent fury of the founder was the most frightening sight anyone had ever seen in their lives."

Tsuna took a moment to absorb this information.

She had an ancestor like that? Just how did someone like that look like?

Her hand moved up, brushing her hair behind her ear without her really noticing she was doing it, it was surprisingly steady despite the fact that her shoulders still hadn't gotten rid of that persistent tremor.

She had to swallow before she managed to find her voice.

"Why can we do this?" she asked timidly.

"That is an excellent question." The man immediately responded. "Giotto never left any records on how he came to have the power, and many have tried to recreate it in other bloodlines with little success over the years." He actually let out a chuckle at this. "Most of the time, the subject burns up before the power can actually settle." Seeing the almost horrified look on Tsuna's face, he quickly changed the subject. "All that is known is that he passed on this unique talent to his descendants." He gave her a pointed look. "To you."

She blinked at the sudden statement.

"Why me specifically?"

The amusement almost radiated off of the man.

"Because Tsunako." He spoke with a silent chuckle. "You're the latest to be born of the main branch."

Tsuna's eyes went wide, the words caught in her throat as the meaning behind the sentence fully registered.

"I'm… in direct relation to…" it was too much. The thought of her, the girl with the brain that had refused to fully develop at a young age, be related to a man whose anger had frightened what sounded to be hundreds of people. It just couldn't be true.

She shook her head free of the comment, sorting it away for later when she could probably handle the information better.

Instead, she focused on another thought.

"You mean to tell me, that there is a multitude of people running around Italy lighting themselves on fire?" she asked slowly, not looking at the man. "Papa included?"

"No."

The answer had come so quickly that Tsuna flinched at the sharpness of it.

"But… you said-" once again, she didn't get to finish her sentence.

"I said that those of your bloodline are born with the potential of using Anima." He elaborated. "However, the norm when using Raw Anima is for the person to use a specially developed object or weapon that they would use as their "match" of sorts in order to materialize their flames as they are holding it." He glanced down at the girl's hands as she once again began to fiddle with her fingers. "Flames such as these are painful to the touch no matter how resistant you are."

Dread washed over Tsuna the more the man spoke.

"So… what I am really is unnatural." She mumbled.

To her surprise, the man rolled his eyes.

"Not at all." He said, making her look up at him in confusion. "Giotto, your ancestor, first activated his flames directly through his skin as well." Tsuna's eyes widened once more. "Only none of his descendants were capable of doing so without ending up with permanent scarring for as long as he lived." He took a deep breath before he kept speaking, the reaction to his own words caused a question to form in Tsuna's head. A question that she had to file away for later considering the man looked as though he was only going to keep talking. "Not long after he died however, the second case of skin-released flames were documented." He pierced her with a meaningful look. "The gift you have is perfectly natural, it is just very rare. Only one of your kind can exist at the same time, you have to die before another can be born." Tsuna could feel a sense of foreboding creep up on her. "We call this person." The man paused for effect, Tsuna was seriously tempted to frown. "The Phoenix."

The Phoenix?

Seriously?

"This…" Tsuna mocked the man with her pause despite the tremor in her shoulders. "All sounds like the premise to a fantasy novel."

"I suppose it does." The man replied with a smirk. "But you know very well that it is real." Tsuna glanced down at her hands, her skin beginning to tingle. The sensation made her furiously rub them as her skin began to glow. Seeing this, the man grabbed her by the upper arms. That was starting to become something of a regular occurrence. "The fires are natural Tsunako, they cannot hurt you if you do not lose control over them." He looked her right in the eyes. "They are yours."

Well, that was all well and good when you said it.

"I'm scared of them," Tsuna admitted in a breathy whisper.

"Don't be," the man ordered. Now it was Tsuna's time to roll her eyes, that was easy for him to say. "No really." The man spoke up, capturing her attention. "If you don't fear them, they can't control you."

Tsuna found herself frowning.

This was too detailed, to informative.

"How do you know all of this?" she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

The man smirked that stupid, almost victorious smirk.

"I make it my job to know things." His job? "Also." He fiddled with the cuffs of his shirt, looking very pleased with himself. "I was sent here to train you, to help you during this particular moment in your life."

Tsuna blinked.

"Train me?"

"Yes." The man nodded. "I took up a class in your school so that I would be able to overview your progress outside of the house without having to appear like a stalker."

He had become a teacher because of her?

Even though he said it did it to not look like a stalker, right now, he felt like one.

"That's why you were so adamant about me joining your class," Tsuna mumbled, fingers fiddling as she spoke. "It's a class specifically for learning these… flames."

The teacher smirked a little as he nodded, confirming her words.

"I named it, Anima Apprenticeship, but as I couldn't let any outsiders know what it was really about, it shortened it to A.A." he explained. "The principal was surprisingly accepting of every condition I put forward."

He wasn't entirely truthful.

He didn't believe the principal was surprisingly accepting, he had probably counted on that fact and had planned every step of the way in order to cement a place on the school faculty. It was just the feeling she got when he talked.

Of course, this feeling also brought forth a question Tsuna had temporarily put on the shelf as the time hadn't been right for it.

Now, however…

"Who are you, really?" she asked slowly, leaning away from the man sitting in front of her, her eyes narrowed. Of course, the man didn't react the way one would imagine.

It just made her curiosity grow.

"The name I have chosen for myself is Reborn." The man answered, a smug expression spreading over his features.


	7. Just Reborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting training.

The name he had chosen for himself.

Meaning, it was not the name he had been given as a child, but some form of pretentious sounding alias that he had picked out later in life for one reason or another.

“Reborn… what?” she found herself asking.

“Just Reborn.” the man immediately answered, waving a hand in the air.

Frowning, Tsuna had been prepared to make a further comment on his… lack of identity but she didn’t have the chance to, the man most likely realized where her thoughts were heading and moved to put a stop to them.

"Now." He spoke up, snapping her attention from her own mind. "Will you accept my tutelage, Sawada Tsunako?"

For a long moment, Tsuna stared at the man.

He wanted to become her teacher in and outside of school to instruct her in a mystical bloodline ability that she had no idea she even had up till over an hour ago.

She didn't know the man, but she could still feel the fires churning underneath the skin.

Finally, she let out a sigh.

"I don't really have much of a choice." Came her response.

"No, you do not." Reborn agreed. Face once again taking on that stoic look, the man lifted up his hands, palms up in between the two of them. "Give me your hands."

Startled at the sudden demand, Tsuna shied away from the man.

"Why?"

"There is something that I need to check." The man answered, though, when she still didn't move to do what he asked, he allowed his expression to soften, looking her right in the eyes without actually showing any emotion in those orbs. "Please."

It didn't take much to realize that even now she didn't have much of a choice.

Still trembling, Tsuna brushed a lock of hair behind her ear before she allowed herself to put her hands out towards the man, watching as his long fingers closed around her hands, almost swallowing them in the size difference between them. She shook as the man turned them over in front of him, looking at them with what she recognized as an experienced gaze.

For a split second, she could have sworn she saw Reborn's pupils flash onyx to a bright, glowing yellow. It made her frown a bit for a moment before she decided to just brush the thought away.

Must have been a trick of the light.

* * *

Reborn watched as Tsunako's pale and bruised skin was coated by an aura of pale orange light, slowly pulsating at a pace that only serving to trouble him. The pulse should have been something like the beating of a sleeping heart, slowly shrinking and expanding around the skin. But… with Tsunako, the pulsing was uneven, irregular, fluctuating at an almost frantic pace. Which could have been brushed off as simply reflecting the state of her nerves, but even the pulsating should have had some regularity or pattern to it.

That was not good.

An uneven rhythm indicated an unstable core, and that was incredibly dangerous for both her and those around her. It could end up with the flames getting out of control, lashing out at anything and anyone.

It meant poor control. And poor control is highly uncommon for a Cuor DiLeone.

How was that possible?

Frowning slightly, he looked up at the girl's wide-open face, the personification of gentle innocence, and suddenly, everything clicked into place.

"Damn it…" he cursed under his breath, his fingers clenching slightly around her smaller hands. He hadn't meant for the words to come out but the realization had brought forth a form of anger that he hadn't intended.

He really should have watched his words more.

"What is it?" Tsunako's voice shook in the build of fear that had suddenly come over her at the man's sudden outburst.

"It all makes so much sense now." He whispered as he let Tsunako's hands fall down to her lap, bringing a finger to his chin, sinking deep into his own thoughts for a brief moment, though he shouldn't have done so with the current state of Tsunako's nerves.

"What does?!" she asked almost frantically, her hands tingling furiously, just moments away from glowing.

"Nothing, it's fine." Reborn quickly corrected himself, putting his hands on the shaking girl's shoulders, forcing her to be still. "Keep calm."

Predictably, she did not react well to this.

"How can I?!" she screamed, her hands beginning to glow in her lap.

Quickly, Reborn looked around the room, frantically yet calmly around the room, searching for something, anything, that could help their case at the moment.

Finally, his eyes fell on a small group of metal buckets lining the wall. Pails of paint that were just waiting for the day that Tsunako decided to keep working on the artwork that she'd already established the theme of her room eventually taking.

Perfect.

"Work on your wall." He ordered, manually turning the shaking girl's head in the direction of the buckets to ensure her thoughts were already moving in a different direction. "Keep your mind off of it."

He watched as her head bobbed into a shaky nod.

Taking a deep breath, Reborn rose from the bed, moving towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Tsunako's still frightened voice asked, making him turn back around towards her.

"Don't worry." He ensured her. "I just need to make a few calls." He gestured towards the buckets. "You focus on your wall." He glanced towards the music box that had stopped playing some time ago without either of them noticing. "Play the melody." He locked his eyes with her one final time. "Don't think." he hesitated before he walked back towards the girl and allowed himself to reach out to put his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll explain as much as I can once I return.”

Turning back around, Reborn continued on the path he'd set out on.

The last thing he heard before he reached the door was the soft, timid voice of his new student.

"Okay…"

* * *

Closing the door behind him, Reborn paused in the hallway to fish his gem out of his pocket.

Swiping his fingers across the surface of the device, he quickly activated a certain secret speed-dial before pressing the gem against his ear, onyx eyes wandering over his surroundings to ensure that no one was listening in on the conversation he was about to have.

Finally, someone picked up on the other end.

"Nono." The man spoke before the one on the other end got a chance to say a word. "It's me." He leaned back against his student’s door, stuffing his free hand into his pocket. "It would appear that I do need him after all."

* * *

Tsunako was a fast painter.

By the time it had taken for Reborn to make his phone-calls, the girl had already begun the work on a quite beautiful golden shape that looked like the cross between a living-light light post and a decorative metal tree with curved branches similar to those of the shadowed turquoise trees she'd already created before he had moved into the house.

No hesitation and with intent, she moved the brush over the wall in surprisingly graceful strokes despite the persistent tremor still present in her shoulders. Reborn could feel his mood darkening drastically as the logical assumption of the reason behind this particular talent entered his mind.

She'd done it before.

Desperately turning to art whilst emotionally vulnerable.

She'd trained up her arm to remain steady whilst painting despite whatever state her nerves might be in, and this was proving to be that skills ultimate test.

It was passing.

It should not be passing.

Aware of the state her nerves were in, Reborn ensured that Tsunako knew that he was in the room before he walked up to her, gently putting his hand on her elbow to stop her arm from moving. Thankfully, she stopped in a way that wouldn't otherwise ruin the work she'd already done. She was still shaking under the material of his blazer that she was still more-or-less drowning in.

The small tilt of her head was the only indication that she was paying him any attention.

"You should clean up." He stated calmly, giving her fragile-looking shoulder a light squeeze. "You might feel better afterward."

He didn't get much of an answer aside from a small nod.

Silently, automatically, Tsunako dropped her brush into a glass of water, the paint immediately seeping out into the liquid in swirls that momentarily caught the girl’s attention before she moved to put lids on the two paint buckets she used. He watched as she moved to her closet, quickly working the screen on the door for the thing to eject the first available outfit on its hanger for her to take.

With the change of clothes in hand, she disappeared into her bathroom.

Reborn listened to the door locking up before he let out a sigh, glancing around the room.

Teenage girls… he'd never been particularly good with them.

The temperature had dropped, which was good.

Now he just needed to ensure that it stayed that way.

As his eyes swept over the room, they caught onto a pair of bottles sitting innocently on top of his student’s desk.

Pill bottles, to be exact.

Eyebrows raised, the man stalked over to the desk, picking up the bottles in his hand before holding them up at eye-level as he studied them thoroughly.

"These are…" he mumbles as a frown etched itself onto his face.

* * *

Cold showers.

As a girl, Tsuna had never really felt the need for them, but the second she'd stepped in under the steady stream of water, she'd known that hot or luke-warm water simply wouldn't do it, and so, she's turned the temperature around and before she knew it, cold water pelted down over her.

Funny how the room still got filled with steam despite this.

Carefully, Tsuna washed the sweat, dirt, ash, and dried blood off of her skin, minding her bruises and the cut on her jaw as best she could, although every once in a while, a tremor of pain did shoot through her body when she accidentally applied too much pressure on a certain spot.

She was no stranger to bruises, but this was the first time the bruises came from someone directly assaulting her with their own limbs rather than with the aid of a staircase or wall.

Compared to being pushed down a staircase, these bruises were nothing, but every shot of pain brought her back to that moment in the alley.

It took several minutes, but finally, she could actually feel the cold water instead of her own skin making it luke-warm before it even touched her, and it was at that moment that she knew it was alright for her to step out.

Looking in the mirror was a frightening experience.

She'd seen herself in the worst situations before, but this was the first time she'd been unable to see her soul when she looked into her own eyes. She was borderline dead inside because of the actions of three young men who couldn’t seem to be able to grasp the simple natural phenomenon known as; change.

Shaking her head, though not to harshly for fear of breaking the seal keeping the wound on her neck closed, Tsuna gave herself a couple of slaps on the cheek, taking a few deep breaths as she kept telling herself the same thing like a mantra in her head.

"You're not a freak, just mysteriously unusual."

And so, yet another motto had been added into her collection.

Looking back into the mirror, brushing her dripping wet and messy hair from her face, Tsuna was pleased to find that some of the life had returned to her eyes. Bracing her hands on the sink, she took a few additional breaths just to ensure that her shoulders had stopped shaking.

Looking back into the mirror, Tsuna opened the cupboard to which it acted as a door, removing the bruising-salve from the shelf, thanking everything clean that she'd stocked up on the thing some time back as she carefully applied the salve to each one of her bruises, experience allowing her to smear it on each bruise that had manifested on her back.

The cut on her neck was something she was less familiar with.

First-aid kit on hand, Tsuna carefully peeled the make-shift seal on the wound to get a better look at it. Thankfully, from the looks of it, it wasn't all that deep, having not hit any major arteries it was proving to be quite the superficial injury that didn't look as though it needed much attention.

She suspected it would scar though...

After double-checking that her work had settled (or dried), Tsuna finally allowed herself to get dressed in the knee-length half-sleeve orange dress she'd picked out in the principle that she shouldn't be wearing anything too tight-fitting when her bruises were healing up, the bruises that were already starting to tickle a little, showing that the salve was already starting to take effect.

And her hair…

Who cares about her hair?

Glancing towards the chair next to the door, she frowned at the sight of her ruined uniform, the black blazer hanging from the backrest, neatly folded and looking quite odd hanging over the pile of ruined cloth.

Finding comfort in the way the slowing fabric of the dress’ skirt moved around her legs, Tsuna moved out of the bathroom, the blazer folded over her arm, her bare feet barely making any noise as they moved over the floor, closing the door behind her before she looked around for the teacher.

The thought that he'd become a teacher simply because of her was still mind-boggling.

It didn't take long for her eyes to land on the man's lean frame.

He was leaning against her desk, fingers fiddling with something in his palm with a frown on his face, almost as though he was silently wishing for whatever he was holding to deteriorate in his hand.

"What are these?"

He had spoken so suddenly that Tsuna found herself actually jumping, the tone of his voice wasn't helping anything either; dark, demanding, dangerous…

Before she got the chance to ask him what he wanted to be identified, the man lifted up a pair of very familiar bottles from the desk, holding them up in the air as though they were drenched in poison or contained a ticking time-bomb of sorts. She didn't need to look at the man's face to know that he was probably getting the same vibes from those things as she had been getting from the moment they had been given to her.

"Pills." She answered, walking up to the man, blazer now tightly clutched against her torso. Reborn turned his dark eyes on her as she draped the blazer over the back of her desk chair. "The doctors prescribed them to me to help retroactively develop parts of my brain." She was pretty sure the man knew of her condition, but she didn't want to take any chances.

Who knows.

The man might have pegged her for a drug-addict.

But then again… he seemed to be too smart for making those assumptions.

Reborn's face crinkled up in anger, eyes momentarily snapping to Tsuna before he looked back at the bottles of pills in the palm of his hand. 

Before Tsuna really had the chance to register what was happening, the man had removed the caps of the bottles, poured the contents into his palm before swiftly chucking them into her trash-can without even looking, masterfully hitting a bullseye with each and every one of the small makeshift projectiles.

Pin-point accuracy…

Tsuna's interest was starting to peek.

The man turned fully towards Tsuna, bottles in hand and a look in his eyes that sent a different kind of shivers running down Tsuna's spine. Different shivers than the ones that she'd been feeling on and off for the past few hours, these ones weren't based on fear, but off of a strange sense of exciting intrigue.

It was a confusing emotion, one that she suspected was unnatural for her.

"Stop using them," Reborn ordered, looking her right in the eyes as he forced the bottles to follow the same fate as the pills had before them, once again, he made a bulls-eye without even seeming to realize the amount of skill he was showing off with that small movement.

Oh, but he did realize it. She could see the smugness underlying the darkness of his gaze.

That bastard.

Tearing her gaze away from the trash-can, Tsuna took a deep breath before meeting the man's gaze.

"I won't argue with you…" she mumbled, having silently hated those pills since she'd gotten them. "But can I get a reason?"

The look in his eyes told Tsuna that he could tell that she'd been suspicious of the pills as well if the small quirk of his mouth was anything to go by, but he quickly straightened out his expression.

"Artificial adrenaline won't help your handicap." He explained, stepping away from the desk as he brushed off his palms in thinly veiled disgust, he inspected the skin of said appendages before he kept talking again. "It wasn't caused by medical means, or lack thereof, to begin with."

For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Tsuna found herself blinking mutedly.

Not medical?

How could it not be medical?

The doctors had all been perfectly capable of spotting her problem, so how in the world could it not have been caused through some medical thing that she wouldn't be able to understand no matter how hard she tried?

"Then…" she mumbled, unsure whether or not she should ask. "What was it caused by?"

This seemed to give the man pause, his shoulders stiffer than normal. She could practically see the thoughts rolling around in his head without actually seeing his face. She got the impression that he was debating on whether or not he should be telling her something or if he should keep it to himself.

If he did the second… she would let him know just how against she is that kind of thing.

Thankfully, that wasn't at all necessary.

Sighing heavily, Reborn turned towards her fully, his face contorted into an expression of almost defeat when he looked at her.

"A sloppy Ashening."

Taken aback, Tsuna tilted her head in confusion.

"A what?"

"Sealing." The man quickly elaborated, taking a few steps towards her. "Someone saw the need to seal your flames at a young age, but they obviously didn't know just how far the awakened power went in you and so the sealing ended up messy, unsafe, and as a result, affected the development of your brain in the process." He frowned as he looked her over, giving her once again, the impression that he was seeing more than she could even begin to imagine. "Ashening someone is always risky business, but doing it on the Phoenix is down-right moronic, there should be a law against it."

Ashening, that makes three terms surrounding the strange power she didn't know she had.

Soon enough, she would have to create a dictionary to keep track of them all.

"And… it's gone now?" Tsuna asked slowly. "The seal?"

Reborn shook his head almost dejectedly.

"No." he answered. "It's been partially broken, hence why a part of your brain has begun repairing itself after so many years."

Tuna's thumb-nail found it's way in between her teeth, she always did this when in thought. Her mother did it when worried, but Tsuna found that putting something between her teeth helped her think better more than anything.

"Can't the seal be completely lifted?" she asked, wrapping an arm around her waist, minding the bruises as she readied her thumb-nail an inch away from her lips.

"Not safely." The man answered, "Those pills were trying to force it open, which actually could have egged on your combustion." He said the last part more carefully than he started off his sentence, obviously still careful about what he was saying to her. "We can only hope to slowly peel away the seal piece by piece or else the fires can overwhelm you and burn you up from inside no matter how flame tolerant you are." He looked at her meaningfully. "Even on the Phoenix."

Tsuna took a couple of deep breaths, nodding slowly.

"No shortcuts." She translated, speaking more to herself than anything. "Got it."

She glanced down at her hand, still feeling a light tingling from her skin, she didn't actually feel the flames anymore so she suspected the tingling was just a side-effect from her skin not being used to… well, being used, in the way it had just been.

She didn't want to lose control like that.

"Exactly when does the lessons start?" she asked, glancing up at the man.

He looked pleased at her eagerness, but he put a hand on her shoulder, eyes reflecting the seriousness of the words he was about to say.

"Right now, you need to fully calm down." When Tsuna opened her mouth to retort he cut her off. "You may have reigned in your nerves and calmed down your emotions to an acceptable degree, but traces of the fires may still be circling through your body without you feeling them in your current state of training." He grabbed her raised hand, lowering it. "You spend the day clearing your mind of everything that happened today, allow the flames to completely run its course before we try to bring out a more controlled dose." He stepped away from her, grabbing his blazer from the chair. "We'll start tomorrow."

"Right…" Tuna relented, watching as the man moved to the stairs. Then, she suddenly thought of something. ”Wait!” she called out.

The man paused, already a few steps down the stairs.

”What am I supposed to tell the doctors about the pills?”

Reborn let out a short chuckle, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

”Let me handle that.” he said, tilting his fedora before he turned right back around, disappearing down the stairs and out the room, leaving her once again. Only this time, she was no longer all that worried about combusting at any second.

Now… what to do…?

* * *

Reborn walked down to the first floor, entering the kitchen where, as predicted, Nana sat at the table with her hands wrapped around a cup of tea that might have been warm at some point but had now long since cooled.

Reborn only had to take one step into the room when the woman's head snapped up.

She was in front of him faster than Reborn had the time to decide what to say.

"How is she?" the woman demanded, giving the teacher the most curious expression of mixed anxiety and fury.

Reborn allowed himself a small smile.

"She's alright now." He promised. "Just give her some space today and she'll probably show herself by tomorrow." He rounded the woman, stepping up to the counter where the coffee machine was calling his name.

He's dealt with emotional teens before, several of them, but all of them had at least been aware of Anima beforehand, and as he'd just discovered, Tsunako was the Phoenix, so the fact that she hadn't been aware of her own bloodline had only made both of their situations all the more difficult than it had already been.

Seriously, what was her father thinking? Keeping her in the dark like this?

The mother walked up behind him as he removed his now filled cup of espresso from the machine.

"What should we do about the bastards that did this to her in the first place?" the woman growled, making the man turn to look at her, eyebrow raised in intrigue. "They cannot be allowed to just walk off after what they've done."

"I agree," Reborn said calmly, taking a sip from the cup. "However…" he held up a finger in front of the woman's face. "We have no way of knowing who it was that did this or even how to find them."

The dark look that passed over Nana's face almost made Reborn back away from her.

"Oh, I could find them…" she growled.

He was starting to see what had made Iemitsu so adamant about wanting this woman to be his wife all those years back.

"I don't doubt you could." He quickly replied to the furious woman in front of him, placing his free hand on her shoulder. "But how do you think Tsunako would react when she found out you did?"

That girl was something special indeed. He'd been watching her.

He didn't think he'd ever met a person that honestly didn't give a damn about what other people did to her no matter how affected she got from their actions. She didn't recent them, she just didn't care for them, she may not truly forgive them but she never allowed herself to hold a grudge against anyone. Even now, he suspected that she was finding ways to brush off what her attackers had done.

Truly, that girl needed to understand that some people find her life to be just as valuable as she saw others to be.

By the look on her face, Nana was having the same thought process as Reborn did.

Her fury changed to annoyance.

Annoyance at her daughters accepting nature.

"By all the toxins." She cursed, stomping her foot in a surprisingly childish action. "Why did Tsu-chan have to take after her father?" she started pacing around the room. "If she'd taken after me she would have put an end to any kind of bullying years ago."

Reborn gave a light chuckle, making the woman turn to him.

"Would you really wish Tsunako was any different?" he asked with an amused tone.

Nana shook herself.

"No." she finally relented. "I don't."

And neither did Reborn. If there was one thing he really liked about his current situation, it was the fact that she really was as open-hearted as she actually were, even if it did cause for a few rather annoying moments such as the one he was currently powering through.

It would be a great help to her sooner rather than later.

Nana put her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"Really." She sighed. "She's too much like Iemitsu for her own good sometimes."

That was all well and good in Reborn's book. He couldn't even imagine if the girl had taken after the woman that was standing in front of him right this minute.

"Don't worry," Reborn said, leaning back against the counter, bringing the cup up to his mouth. "I have already pulled a few threads at school to make sure that she won't have any more trouble inside the building." He took a long sip. "And now, when she's got the opportunity to make friends, she can have protection on the way home."

This proved to calm down the frazzled woman.

"I hope you're right." She breathed.

"I'm always right." Reborn shot back, smirking over the lip of the cup.

* * *

** _March 22_ **

** _Friday 2215_ **

Tsuna hadn't gone to school that day.

It really wasn't the surprising as she seriously doubted the still fragile state of her nerves would be able to handle it, and so, she'd turned the alarm off the night before and allowed herself to sleep for as long as her body felt she needed.

Eleven hours and 43 minutes.

It had shocked her when she'd woken up, as normally she only needed around eight hours of sleep or less depending on what she needed to do the night before a school day, but now, she woke up hours later than she'd expected with a heavy body that still seemed to rest even though her mind at that point was wide awake.

It had been a weird moment for her, but Reborn had been quick to explain it.

"Activating your Anima has always proven to be the most exhausting time for almost everyone I know." He'd told her. "And that was just activating the core, yours fully unleashed directly from your body and you still managed to keep yourself awake for hours afterward." He'd smirked as he'd told her the rest. "I know people that had lost consciousness completely after their first dealing with the flames directly and slept for days, and here you are, wide awake after just a few hours longer a sleep than normal." He had nodded a bit to himself. "I suppose that is either because you're a Phoenix or because you're a DiLeone but either way, it is quite remarkable."

She didn't need anyone to tell her that actually having someone to tell her everything she was going through and why she was going through it was a good thing. She actually wished she'd had someone like that three years ago, but you can't have everything.

Her mother had been absolutely ecstatic when she'd come down for breakfast, almost dropping the plates as she'd rushed to embrace her daughter. Reborn actually had to take the plates away from the woman before they'd crashed to the floor.

Unfortunately, Nana wasn't able to stay for that long as the bakery needed her, and with the fact that Tsuna now looked a lot better than she'd done when she'd returned home the day before, Nana felt a lot better leaving the house, especially since Reborn happened to have a day off that Friday due to a lack of potential students wanting to try out for his course and was able to stay home with her daughter just in case the girl somehow relapsed during the day.

It had been Reborn's idea to turn on the news as Tsuna ate.

She didn't know if he'd somehow predicted it, but almost the second he'd turned on the TV, the Ackerman changed to a different topic.

"On another note, yesterday afternoon, it would appear that an alleyway in the northern districts of Namimori mysteriously caught fire." Tsuna felt herself go pale at the words. "The investigators have as of yet been unable to determine the source or place of origin of the fire, but the strange thing about this particular fire was that it wouldn't go out." Tsuna shot out of her seat, staring wide-eyed at the screen. "The Automatic Environment Safety Department tried every fire-stifling technique they had on hand but nothing seemed to work, so in the end, they simply roped off the area and allowed the flames to burn until they extinguished themselves." Tsuna could feel the tingling returning to her fingers but she quickly snuffed them out. "Thankfully, no injuries have been reported." Well, at least there was that.

Before the Ackerman could continue, Reborn turned the TV off, making her turn towards him, seeing him looking at her with an expectant expression.

"They won't go out?" she found herself asking.

"No." he answered her easily. "As the flames aren’t created through normal means, it can not be put out through normal means either." He gestured towards the screen. "The most the regular people can do to get rid of these flames is to simply let them eat, but depending on where the fires break out, that cannot always be the wisest choice." He pushed her back down onto her chair. "I showed you this so that you would know, once you've learned to control your flames, to not use them rashly even when no one is around."

Tsuna nodded in understanding.

Out of control flames that could not be put out through regular means…

She didn't need to have any excessive imagination to know that that was not good.

* * *

After breakfast, the student and teacher settled down inside of her bedroom, Tsuna fiddling with her fingers as she anxiously waited for the man to start his instructing.

She watched in confusion as the man threw a large pillow to the floor before he turned towards her.

"First things first." He stated, adjusting the blazer even though it didn't even look wrinkled after Tsuna had worn it the day before. "There are four emotions that you need to keep track of from now on." He started counting them up on his fingers, standing in front of Tsuna where she was sitting on the bed. "Determination, Stress, Anger, and Fear."

With a deep breath, Tsuna nodded in understanding.

"These fuels... Anima?" she tried the word out on her tongue, finding it very odd indeed but there was little she could do about that.

She’d stick to “Flames” from now on and whatever alternate names offered to her.

"They do," Reborn answered. "In one way or another, every emotion does really, but these four have a much higher risk of functioning as a trigger to unleash the energy in any user."

Tsuna couldn't help but recall the day before when she was still cowering against the wall in the alley, the words he had spoken to her back then in one of his multiple attempts at calming her down.

She leaned forward, hands braced on the mattress.

"You mentioned that fear was like trying to put out fire with gasoline." She mentioned, not looking at the man as everything he'd said back then rushed back to the forefront of her mind, words that she now made sure to file away where they belonged.

"Exactly." Reborn nodded, making her turn back towards him. "Fear is, essentially, the overwhelming, desperate desire to save your own or another person's life or anything else that you might feel is threatened, only you have no idea how to achieve this and ten to act either on instinct or mindless actions." Tsuna found herself listening intently, hanging onto every word that rolled off of his tongue. "Anger is a violent outburst of a certain desire that has been building up until it explodes like igniting gas." Tsuna could only imagine what that might be like if she ever got angry, not that she could recall a time in which that actually happened. "Stress is a frantic desire prickling under your skin, it can either just be a sparkler or the fuse to a bomb depending on the origin and nature of the stress, PTSD, for example, can give quite devastating results whilst time-related stress could barely affect the core at all." Tsuna had to do a double-take at the descriptions, whilst they were helpful, she had no idea where he had gotten those kinds of metaphors from. "Now Determination." Her focus returned. "Determination is the basic fuel to Anima, the most stable form, like a candle." Reborn's gaze hardened. "But even that can get out of hand if you're not careful."

Tsuna nodded, mind reeling as it tried to sort through the information she'd just been given, her hands landing on her lap where her fingers began fiddling.

"So basically… I need to keep constant control of my emotions." She mumbled, trying to prepare herself for the amount of work that would entail.

"At the moment, yes." At the moment… those words made Tsuna frown.

He had spoken as though emotions were the key point in controlling this power, and now he said that she only had to control her emotions "at the moment"?

Seeing her mental dilemma, Reborn put his hand on her shoulder.

"Once you've got control over your core, the risk of the flames getting the better of you will lessen considerably." He explained.

Tsuna frowned.

"Core?"

"Yes." Reborn stepped away from Tsuna, beginning to walk around the room with an air of exasperated annoyance. "Most Anima masters will tell you that the proper way of controlling the power is to simply control your emotions." He stopped suddenly, snapping his index-finger in her directions. "Don't listen to those morons." Had Tsuna been any other girl, she probably would have laughed at his words, but the seriousness he was radiating stopped her. "If they were to even, for a split second, loose that control of their emotions, their powers will go haywire." He stopped in front of her. "Their method keeps the energy bottled up inside of them like a dam, only said dam is very weak and just the smallest pebble would be able to send the whole thing toppling down, and such a method is a death sentence when it comes of the Phoenix." He started walking again, Tsuna's eyes trailing after him with every step he took.

So, it was a power whose control technique could vary, but according to the man, the most common technique was the wrong technique.

This is already starting to become confusing.

Suddenly, the man stopped again, the finger once again pointed in her direction but with a more lenient attitude to it, not an accusing one this time around.

"What you need to do, is to look inside to find the very spot in your body from which the energy originates." He turned his finger towards his chest. "You control that spot, you control the energy without having to keep constant track of your emotions, you decide when the core is active and when it is not, you don't walk around with flames brewing underneath your skin at every waking moment, you're safe." He let his hand fall to his side, looking down at her. "That is what we're going to do."

Without her actually realizing it, Tsuna nodded.

Between the two techniques, she'd just been presented with, the one that Reborn wanted to teach her did indeed sound like the safer option.

Of course, he could just be sugar-coating it, making it sound like the superior method, but she got no such vibes from him, he truly felt that that was the best way to do it and if this man felt that it was the method best for her, then she would have to trust him.

"Okay…" she breathed, rising up from the bed. "Where do I start?"

Reborn stepped up to her, putting a hand between her shoulder-blades as he led her towards the pillow he'd thrown down, pushing her down so that she was sitting on it.

"You need to find the spot." He said, stepping away from her so that he had a good look at the entirety of her. "And the best way to do that is to meditate." She seriously fought against giving him an exasperated look at this point.

Meditation?

Really?

Yes, she knows that it actually has proven to be really effective in the control of one's emotions, but still. All this talk and the first thing he wants her to do is meditate to find a spot inside of her that pumped out flames?

Did he even realize how crazy that sounded?

As if knowing where her thoughts were heading, Reborn spoke up from where he saw currently stranding behind her.

"I'm going to need you to do exactly as I tell you Tsunako."

Do exactly as he told her.

He wanted her to give up her own thoughts were his orders were concerned and simply follow. She'd done that once, followed everything everyone told her in a desperate attempt to get someone, anyone, to like her, to want to be friends with her.

The only thing she'd gotten were jeers that she was basically everyone's slave, that they didn't have to care for her as she would do what they told her to anyway.

It didn't take long for her to realize what was going on, and when that happened, she'd sworn to herself one thing, one tiny little thing.

"If you tell me why I should do each step, then we'll have no problems." She told the man, mentally reminding herself that she always, always, would have the right to ask the simple question:

Why?

She heard the man chuckle behind her, and immediately, her thoughts snapped into defense mode, if he was chuckling because he believed he could somehow work that thought out of her then he had another thing coming.

Tsuna was more than happy to admit to herself that she was stubborn.

Thank you, Mother.

Thankfully, that was not what Reborn was chuckling about at all.

"That's a good mindset." He remarked, voice ringing clear of any double meaning, allowing Tsuna to relax. For now, she was in good enough hands. "Now relax." The teacher continued. "This process might take a couple of days, but I promise you that the results will be more than worth it."

* * *

** _May 23_ **

** _Saturday 2215_ **

Turns out, trying to find an invisible spot inside of you turned out to be a much more difficult task than Tsuna had initially thought it to be.

The first day had been spent in instructing Tsuna how to properly relax herself whilst still sitting up, establishing which position felt the best for her and how to breathe in the proper manner to ensure that she was relaxed inside and out.

Now, she was sitting on the pillow, trying to follow the teacher's latest instruction.

"I thought I told you to clear your mind," Reborn muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose from where he was leaning against the wall, watching over his students progress, or lack thereof as currently was the case.

Tsuna couldn't keep herself from groaning as she opened her eyes.

"That's easy for you to say." She mumbled, bringing up a hand to rub her eyes.

All of this heavy breathing with her eyes closed was only serving to make her tired. Maybe she should try doing this the next time she was having a considerably harder time than normal to fall asleep or something because obviously, it wasn't helping her in whatever technique the teacher wanted her to learn.

"It is." The teacher pushed himself off of the wall and walking up to her. "I thought you'd be more than accustomed to clearing your head by now, after everything you've been through." He adjusted the white cuffs hiding beneath the blazer sleeves for a moment.

Tsuna had to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

"I'm used to diverting my thoughts, not clearing them." She shot back, adjusting herself on top of the pillow.

"Then..." Reborn paused, crouching down in front of her with a thoughtful look in his eyes. "What do you think about when you paint?"

This threw Tsunaa off for a moment.

What did she think about when she was painting?

What kind of question was that? It completely depended on what she was painting, whether the subject was already decided by someone else or herself ahead of time or if she was painting just because she… felt… like it…

"Nothing…" the answer slipped out of her before she honestly had the time to fully comprehend what was happening.

Reborn nodded at her answer.

"Then try this." He said, picking up her hands from where they had been folded in her lap, holding her wrists in between them. "Put yourself in the mindset you're in before you begin a painting." Tsuna's fingers curled in towards her palms.

The man was surprisingly adamant about almost always keeping at least one hand on her when explaining something, probably as a means of ensuring that he had her attention, but she was still Japanese and she was still very much not used to physical contact at all, so each time he touched her, it was very much uncomfortable and sometimes even borderline painful depending on how long he allowed the touch to linger.

Either way, Tsuna let her eyes fall shut.

"Visualize yourself sitting in front of a clear canvas." Reborn's voice boomed all around her, his presence strangely pulsating in front of her even though all she could see was a dark red from the light in her room filtering in through her eyelids. "Imagine that you have a brush in your hand and you're preparing yourself to begin on yet another one of your masterpieces."

Masterpieces?

Whilst she was confident enough in her artistic skills, she would never have thought to call them masterpieces. It was a coping mechanism for purity's sake.

Nevertheless, Tsuna allowed herself to go along with Reborn's description.

She'd never really broken down her painting process before and it was a strange kind of out-of-body experience for her to register each step as they came to her, especially when her body seemed to instantly reacted to the clearing of her mind with the raising of her hand in the reflexive action of her body associating not thinking with painting.

Of course, with her wrists still locked in Reborn's grip, her body couldn't move on instinct and thus she was kind of, knocked into a state that was very much, unfamiliar to her.

She felt kind of… floaty, surrounded by the steady pounding of what could only be a heartbeat, it echoed through her entire being.

It was so strange.

"There we go…" Reborn's voice filtered in through her hazy perception of reality. "Now, you'll have to find two things." Tsuna could feel a flash of confusion hit her before the man continued talking. "The first thing is the feel of the physical pounding, that being your heart." Surprise surprise, it didn't take long for Tsuna to locate that pounding, and being fully conscious of every single beat of your heart is a strange thing indeed. "Have you found it?" his voice spoke up again, forcing her boy into a reflexive nod. "Good, I asked you to find it so that you wouldn't be confused at the other thing, which is a pulsating that should more or less be on time with the heart, but it doesn't physically pound, but pulsate heat." Okay… that was something that was different.

For what felt like a long moment, Tsuna plowed through the haze that she now understood to be her perception of her inner workings or something along those lines, she didn't really want to think about that all too much.

It was much harder to locate a silent pulsing when the sound of her heartbeat was still vibrating through her. Finally, though, she felt something subtle, something that she probably would have brushed off as the temperature fluctuating had she not been told to look for exactly that. Only it was weak, very weak.

"Can you feel it?" Reborn's voice sounded, almost making her jump.

Tsuna swallowed, trying to zero in on that slow pulsing sensation.

"I feel… something…" she answered slowly, eyes squeezing together as she tried to locate the source of the pulsing inside of her, pushing through the haze as though weaving through a field of two-meter tall seaweed.

"Do you think you can grasp it?" the man asked, voice barely making it through the current mental state she was in.

She tried.

She really tried.

She didn't know just how long she tried to follow that strange pulsing sensation, but the more she tried, the more it felt like she was moving further away from where it actually was located, only serving to make her annoyed.

"No." she finally stated, pulling herself out of the daze as she removed her hands from the man’s grasp, letting out a deep sigh as she rubbed her wrists. "It's too weak."

Sighing, Reborn nodded at her answer.

"I was afraid of this." He mumbled, rising from the floor. "I'm calling it a day."

Tsuna's head snapped up to look at the man, eyes wide.

"What?" she expressed. "Why?"

For a terrifying moment, Tsuna wondered if she'd somehow done something wrong and that was why he was calling it a day when she'd only been on this internal search for…

Tsuna glanced towards the clock on the wall, and if her eyes could widen any more than they already were, they just did.

Four hours?

She'd been meditating for four hours?

She felt as though it's only been like twenty minutes, how has it been four hours?

The sound of Reborn talking again brought her out of her moment of shock at the immense lapse in her perception of time to once again pay attention to what he was saying.

"If it's too weak for you to grasp, then the core isn't open enough for you to register its presence." The man explained, reaching down a hand to pull Tsuna up to her feet as to not have to look down at her and spare her the neck pains. "Forcing you to try and search for something that's not large enough to be properly located will just waste both of our times don't you think?"

Tsuna nodded slowly, letting out a long sigh as she glanced away from the man.

She knew he was talking sense, but she couldn't help herself.

She needed to learn control over this power, an almost desperate desire spawning from her fear of what it could do to everything around her.

In a short moment of childish impatience, Tsuna bounced off her toes.

"Then what do we do?" she asked, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

"I'll have to find a safe enough way to coax the seal open just a bit further." At the brief look of fear that passed over Tsuna's face, Reborn kept talking. "Don't worry." He said calmly. "So long as we keep you under observation for a few days and you don't lose control of your emotions for that brief period of time, it will be alright."

Tsuna nodded slowly at his reasoning.

"Then what do I do for now?" she asked, moving towards the bed to collapse onto the blankets, feeling surprisingly exhausted for having just sat and done nothing for four hours straight.

"Prepare yourself." Came the man's answer.

"For what?" Tsuna asked with a breath, wanting nothing more than to allow her entire being to sink into her mattress and remain there for a good amount of time.

Sighing, Reborn settled down next to her on the bed, rolling his eyes as he kept his back firmly turned to the girl.

"You do realize that you need to go to school on Monday, don't you?" she stiffened at the mere thought, and the man didn't even need to look at her to know just how she'd reacted to what he'd said. He sighed again, leaning his arms on his legs. "Tsunako, I have a job there you know."

"A job teaching a course with no students." Tsuna retorted into her pillow.

She got the sense that the teacher was forcing himself to remain serious even though she got a sense of amusement when he started talking again.

"Don't take that tone with me." He ordered, taking on a tone like a father playfully scolding his child, though she had to keep herself from succumbing to the humor of the moment. Thankfully, it didn't take long for Reborn to truly return to his serious demeanor. "It's not my fault I actually have to keep up the appearance of giving students an entrance test."

This brought a frown to Tsuna's face.

"Yeah…" she muttered, slowly rising up from the mattress to look at the back of her teacher's head with narrowed eyes. "What do you do during those tests?"

"That's a conversation for another day," Reborn answered quickly.

Really?

He’s been pretty much answering her every question and now he decides to stop answering her? Just what was he thinking?

"But-" she started but she didn't get any further.

"No." Reborn cut her off, finally actually turning around to look at her. At seeing the annoyance on her face, he held up a finger between them. "I promise that I will not withhold anything from you." He stated, looking her right in the eyes. "But telling you everything at the same time is not good for you in your current state." He moved his eyes to her hands, where a persistent tremor still existed even though she'd mostly recovered the original state of her nerves under his instruction. He looked back into her eyes. "I will tell you the second the situation call for it, alright?"

Sighing in exasperation, Tsuna let herself fall onto her back.

"I'll hold you to that." She mumbled in exhaustion.

"I don't doubt you will," Reborn answered with a chuckle as he raised himself up from the girl's bed.

He had been about to leave the room when his student spoke up again.

"Reborn." She called, making him pause. "Will I be alright, going back to school?" her voice was barely more than a whisper, the tremor in her fingers more visible than before.

"Do you think you can calm yourself down in came something were to happen?" the teacher asked her right back.

For a long moment, Tsuna just laid there, thinking over his question before she brought her trembling hand up to hover in front of her face.

"I…" she mumbled, taking a deep breath. "I think so…" she answered, face contorted in uncertainty. "I'm not entirely sure…"

Reborn nodded at her answer.

"Well," he breathed, making the girl look at him as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "We'll just have to ensure that we've boosted your confidence before Monday then, don't we?" the smirk that spread across his lips at his words made Tsuna wonder whether or not she had made the right choice in agreeing to his tutelage after all.


	8. Olive Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The introductions of a VERY special someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay...  
I know that I said that I would update every third day but... the season is messing with my energy levels currently and I just don't have it in me to write much of anything right now, even if I essentially only have to edit and stuff.  
Basically... I have decided to attempt to update at least every Friday from now on to buy me some extra time.  
I'm sorry if I come off as somewhat annoyed, this is the second time I'm writing this message and I'm already at something of a... less-than-stellar mindset after a rather long day.  
I just started a new course and I was overly involved in the lesson (It was a class about essentially ancient Grece and I LIVE for that shit), so my introverted ass is basically exhausted right now.  
Sorry.  
Anyway, you didn't come here to listen to me ranting about my boring as shit life.  
Do keep scrolling.

** _May 25_ **

** _Monday 2215_ **

She hadn't gotten any sleep that night.

Alright, that would be a lie, she had gotten a few hours of rest when her exhaustion got the better of her, but she didn't feel like she had. Cold sweat accumulating on her skin, causing shivers to add onto her already growing list of things wrong with her that morning.

Her problems had started when she caught her reflection in the mirror whilst getting dressed. Or, to be more precise, the thin, healing cut on her neck.

She glanced towards her collection of makeup that she’d never used, eyes trailing over a tube of concealer. Before she knew it, she was standing there, fingering the tube as she went over her options in her head.

Should she cover it?

Could she handle the questions that would be sure to come if she didn’t cover it?

Yamamoto would surely worry if she showed up the way she did, and she knew that there was no way she would be able to lie to him without feeling guilty...

“Don’t try to hide it.” the voice caused her to drop the tube.

Tsuna should have expected it by now. She never did hear when Reborn entered her room unless she had the door bolted. She should really start doing that on a daily babes if she wanted to maintain her privacy.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” the Italian man said, walking up to where she was standing and plucked the tube from the floor, putting it back where she’d picked it up from.

Looking to Tsuna, he put his hand on her chin, gently turning her head a little to get a better look of the cut, carefully running his thumb over the lightly shiny pink cut to make sure that there was nothing wrong with it.

“It’s a mark of survival,” he stated letting go of her face and straightening his back, looking down on his student. “You ready?”

Tsuna shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“Would it make a difference if I said no?”

“Not really.” Reborn immediately answered, putting his hand between her shoulder-blades and steering her out of the room.

* * *

She was sitting at the breakfast table, fork clutched tightly in her trembling hand as she poked around at the food on her plate, her appetite having long since left her even before she'd gone to bed the previous night.

She felt empty, her stomach aching, and yet she couldn't bring herself to eat.

Reborn had been watching his student for a good five minutes, and her hunched over, pale-faced state was starting to make even him nervous.

"Tsunako." He said as calmly as he could so as to not startle the girl, he barely got any acknowledgment that she'd even heard him, aside from a momentary pause in the movement of her hand. "You need to eat."

Tsuna's answer came in an almost robotic nod.

"I know…" she answered slowly, not capable of speaking any louder than a whisper in her trembling state. She took a deep breath as she slowly, deliberately, pressed her fork into a piece of sausage. "I just… don't think I'll be able to hold anything down today."

Rolling his eyes, Reborn reached out a hand to gently grab the girl's wrist before she once again stabbed the ceramic, thus creating the most annoying sound that cut at your ears.

Funny how it seemed like she wasn't at all affected.

"Remember what we practiced yesterday." He told her, forcing her to keep her eyes locked his, hopefully, to help her keep her mind momentarily focused on something that wasn't whatever it was that was persistently swarming inside of her mind.

"I know…" Tsuna replied with a swallow, taking a deep breath before she continued. "But it doesn't really make it any easier at the moment." She pulled her wrist from the teacher's hand, once again returning to mutilating the sausages on her plate, not even a crumb coming even close to entering her mouth.

Nana had been watching her daughter as well, her thumb-nail almost welded in between her two rows of teeth at the moment before she finally snapped, letting her hand drop before she walked up behind Tsuna's chair, gently placing a hand on the girl's trembling shoulder.

"Tsu-chan…" the woman spoke as softly as she could as she sat down in the chair next to the girl she'd helped creating, still keeping her hand on the girl in what she hoped to be a comforting manner. "You absolutely sure you're ready to go back to school?" she asked, voiced filled with concern. "It'll be perfectly alright if you say home for a few more days after what you've been through."

Truthfully, Nana would have liked to bring Tsuna back to the hospital just to be sure the stitches hadn't ripped, not to mention to have a professional look at the visible, rage-inducing cut on her neck, but Tsuna had fiercely ensured her that the bio-fabric had kept the wound from taking too much damage and it was pretty much all healed anyway.

They were just waiting for the visit to have the stitches removed now.

It was also obvious that the cut was healing nicely, and considering how far along the cut had closed up within just a few days, the cut had been superficial in the first place.

Still, that didn’t make Nana worry any less.

Tsuna glanced at Reborn, knowing perfectly well of what her mother knew of what she'd been through, her hand hovering over a part on her wrist where the bruise had long since faded thanks to the salve.

She didn't know how many times she'd given that particular invention a solid thanks.

"Mom…" Tsuna breathed, not looking at the woman. "If I don't take the step now… when will I take it?" she asked, glancing at her mother at the edge of her vision.

Nana paused, not sure whether or not she should speak before she couldn't keep herself from the comment any longer.

"When I force you too." She stated.

Momentarily thrown off, Tsuna turned fully to her moment before she actually thought about her mother's words and nodded to what she'd said.

"True." She answered.

Reborn glanced between the two women in obvious amusement.

"Tsu-chan, look at me," Nana said, turning her daughter fully towards her and grabbed hold of her hands, removing the fork and putting it on the plate before she started talking again, taking on a much more serious air. "You are a beautiful young woman."

Tsuna felt the color flush to her face at her mother's words.

"Mom-" she didn't get to keep talking.

"No." The woman cut her off, her grip tightening around her daughter's hands. "You're my daughter, and because you're my daughter, you are gorgeous." She said this as though it was the most obvious thing on the planet, though it was very much laced with humor so Tsuna didn't have to worry about her mother's vanity. "Just because the rest of the world is blind doesn't mean it's not true." The woman brought out a hand to brush her daughter's messy hair from her eyes, showing off more of that face she'd just complimented as only a mother could.

"You've told me this already," Tsuna said, waving off her mother's hand.

"And I'll say it again if I feel you need it." The woman argued right back, making Tsuna narrow her eyes slightly.

"And I need it now?" she asked.

Confusion only grew when a smirk slowly spread across her mother's face.

"You stopped shaking didn't you?"

And sure enough, the tremors that had been going through the young girl's body. They were still very much percent in her hands but one couldn't have everything.

Reborn looked at the woman in interest.

The two women might not be as close as they might have wanted themselves to be, but Nana still understood Tsuna enough to diffuse her tense nerves with just a few sentences.

He'd have to recall that she was weak to embarrassment for later.

Nana was, however, not done talking.

"And we really need to do something about this hair so that others can say the same." She took one lock of the mess between her thumb and index finger, still looking right into her daughter's eyes. "It's about time that you go and get yourself a few boyfriends."

Tsuna's eyes widened in shock.

"Boyfriends?!" she almost shrieked. "As in plural?!"

"Of course!" Nana exclaimed right back, releasing the lock of hair. "Your looks are too good to waste on one man." She paused for a moment, obviously realizing what that sounded like and quickly elaborated. "Of course, I don't mean at the same time."

"Oh thank the stars." Tsuna breathed, face now almost glowing red from her mother's attention.

Reborn wiped the amusement from his face, finally deciding to take mercy on his student and save her from her embarrassment.

"Tsunako." He spoke up, making both of the women turn to him. He jerked his head towards the clock on the wall. "If you don't hurry up, you're going to be late."

For a moment, Tsuna could feel the tingling kindling in her fingertips.

"I'll arrive there myself in about an hour." He added, serving to at least calm her momentarily.

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay…" Tsuna mumbled, getting off of her chair as she picked up her bag from the floor and moved towards the door. "I'll be off then."

For a moment, Nana remained seated before hurrying after her daughter, she managed to get into the hall just as the girl had opened the front door.

"Be safe sweetheart." Nana's words sounded almost like a prayer as she looked at her precious little girl, the girl who had actually paused in the door before the woman even opened her mouth.

"I'll try." She breathed before she closed the door behind her, pausing on the front porch before she allowed herself to take the first step on the road.

* * *

From the window, Reborn had pushed aside the light green curtain to watch his student as she took one cautious step after the other, taking almost a minute before she finally faded away from his line of sight at the window where he'd taken in each tremor running through the girl's body as she'd walked.

Sighing, he allowed the curtain to fall back, returning his attention to his other hand that had been holding onto his cup of espresso. He ran his thumbs over the porcelain.

He really would be there in about an hour, but who was to say what would happen to her on the way to school?

Perhaps he should have gone with her?

No. She'd insisted on taking the walk on her own.

That stubborn girl.

He sighed again, bringing the cup to his lips as he prayed to the ancient ones that she'd at least make it safely to the gate-posts of the school grounds without dissolving into a fit of panic.

Or worse.

* * *

Tsuna's steps were heavy as she silently made her way through the streets of the small town, slowly moving down the familiar path towards the school grounds whilst feeling something like a condemned prisoner from historical movies being lead to the gallows.

It was almost like her body was subconsciously trying to force her to skip going to the building entirely, having somehow adopted the mindset that if she walked slowly enough she wouldn't have to go at all, but that idea was being furiously fought with her downright refusal to be late spawning from preservation instincts that ran through the entire student body of Namimori High, just like they had in Namimori Middle.

If she was late, then she would end up on the bad side of the head prefect, and she really didn't need that adding onto the weight on her frayed nerves on her first day back in the classroom.

It didn't matter how at ease she felt around the Prefect, she did not want to test her almost non-existent luck with him.

She clutched tightly at the straps of her bag, eyes snapping around every corner she passed for potential threats before she forced herself to keep going, the feel of people's eyes following her, their presence hovering around her weighing her down more than she would honestly like to admit.

Just walking to school was proving to be a surprisingly stressful experience.

Even more, than it had been before which really was saying something.

Finally, after what felt like forever, she reached the school gates, at which point her feet locked onto the ground, her legs refusing to take one more step.

She was scared, that much was a given, and it was causing her fingertips to tingle.

She did notice that the prefect checking bags by the gateposts had been exchanged for what appeared to be a brand new constructions appearing to be something like light posts, though Tsuna guessed they were special cameras designed to pick up on the presence of potential weaponry.

That was something at least.

Closing her eyes, Tsuna allowed her senses to open to the world around her as she searched for that familiar gnawing sensation that she'd come to understand indicated something that was going to happen, the nature and location of the gnawing usually telling her whether or not that event would be something she should dread or look forward to.

She honestly didn't know why she got these sensations, but now that this had happened to her, she couldn't help but to appreciate they're existence.

More importantly, she was looking for that sensation of potential threat hanging over her head.

It took a moment, but she finally got what she needed.

She did feel something.

A light gnawing at the back of her neck, but it wasn't bad.

So something was going to happen, most likely today, but thankfully, for the sake of her nerves, the event wasn't going to be bad.

Letting out a deep breath, Tsuna opened her eyes, allowing herself to actually look at the building as she adjusted the straps on her bag and prepared to walk through the gate posts, through the new constructs and join the crowd of students milling in all around her.

She was stopped when the air shifted.

Something black zoomed past her, throwing her messy hair and skirt into a whirlwind that momentarily blinded her and probably would have caused her to accidentally flash everyone around her underwear had her blazer's length not kept the skirt from showing anything higher than just higher than her mid-thigh. Whomever that was riding the thing would have run straight into her had she moved just one foot to the left.

Now she understood why people had put up such a violent fight against the silent motors when they had first arrived around 50 years ago.

It was a hoverbike.

A sleek black contraption built for speed and durability with painted flames and skeletons at the front and rear, details that was only visible after it had pulled a dangerous topple-risky halt among the other bikes when the driver veered the vehicle into a sharp turn that would have probably left marks on the asphalt had the thing actually had tires as it would have had had it been a model just a few decades older. The driver turned off the motor mid-turn, expertly maneuvered themselves in order to keep both themselves and the bike upright as it lowered to the ground among the other bikes.

It was a wonder that they hadn't crashed right into them when they'd stopped.

Tsuna wasn't the only one that had paused upon the riders' arrival, having caught the attention of pretty much everyone around them the second they'd passed through the gates.

On closer inspection, Tsuna could tell that the driver was a young, lean man.

One of the students.

Of course, women could be lean too but the drivers built was definitely that of the male gender if the fit of his clothes were anything to go by, Tsuna notices those kinds of things. Dressed in black slacks with the occasional rip, and a white dress-shirt that was only partially visible from under the dark-red hoodie the guy wore instead of the customary blazer to keep himself protected from the air hitting him as he drove.

Tsuna (and basically everyone else) watched as the guy yanked off his fingerless biker-gloves, Tsuna unable to keep herself from noticing just how long and slender those fingers were before he moved to remove his helmet.

Tsuna didn't know why, but she found herself holding her breath in anticipation, not capable of basic human function as she waited for the sleek black piece of head-protection to be removed.

And she didn't have to wait long.

Silver.

Mid-neck long locks of silver hair tumbled out of the black almost-sphere, settling down around the driver's head as he gave it a short shake. 

For a moment, Tsuna was overcome with the strangest of sensations, a sensation that she couldn't, for the life of her, describe or even distinguish it's meaning, frustrating her somewhat but she knew that the feeling involved that young man whose back was still turned towards her.

She did know that it had nothing to do with the high-pitch squeals that now echoed through the school grounds.

She watched, transfixed as the guy ran his long fingers through his hair, almost making her jealous at just how silky and easily manageable it looked to the touch. The quickly adjusted the placement of the silvery strands before, finally, he turned towards her direction, and Tsuna immediately found herself locked in place.

She didn't think she'd ever seen a more gorgeous shade of olive-green in her life.

She now understood perfectly why the squeals still sounded all around her, occasionally accompanied by the jealous groan of annoyance at said reaction.

Everything about this guy's appearance looks as though it had been sculpted by a professional artist with the mindset to create the personification of the term "take a picture, it'll last longer". A prominent jawline attached to a surprisingly slender neck, visible cheekbones, a slightly upturned nose below a pair of perfectly arched eyebrows stretching over the naturally narrowed eyes that owned that beautiful olive-green color.

His skin looked to be flawless alabaster pale.

He was handsome.

Very handsome.

The kind of handsome that Tsuna found she would very much like to paint someday.

Sure, there were plenty of other people who were handsome too, but there were many different kinds of it, and in Tsuna's own personal opinion, there was no such thing as an ugly person in existence. At the very least, she had yet to meet someone who's appearance she found truly revolting.

Yamamoto, according to Tsuna, would be the perfect example of a sort of roughed-up, wind-blown handsomeness that only manages to grow after a training session.

But this guy… the guy on the hoverbike… the one staring at Tsuna with the weirdest look on his face. He was handsome in an elegant manner, no… aristocratic, that's the word.

No matter how much of a delinquent his still or even his very entrance and choice of accessories made him look, Tsuna could see beyond that, probably more than her still squealing school-mates bothered to look where a pretty face was concerned.

She found herself pitying the guy.

When she looked at him, she got this image of a rich man's son who for some reason began to hate the lifestyle he'd been raised in and ran away, turning himself into the guy in front of her at the very moment.

Once again, she'd really, really, like to paint him one day.

Even though she seriously doubted that would ever happen.

She probably could have stood there staring at the guy for the whole day without knowing it had the sound of the school bell ringing through the air not knocked her out of the trance he had somehow put her in.

Shaking her head, Tsuna awkwardly scurried off towards the main entrance of the school, desperately trying to ignore the deep of those beautiful olive-green eyes following her as she went.

* * *

Never before had the simple act of walking through the school corridors been as nerve-wracking as it was at this very moment. The sounds of the students chatter almost deafening her as she went, only broken up when the occasional Prefect passed by.

She ensured that she didn’t meet the eyes of anyone, even though she knew that she was a rather recognizable person in the school, but she hoped, hoped to everything pure on the earth that Mochida and his crew wasn’t present at the school and thus wouldn’t hear anything where she was concerned, or even see her.

She didn’t think she’d be able to handle it if they did.

Keeping her head low, she weaved herself through the sea of students, expertly avoiding having to actually touch any of them and alert them of her presence. She didn’t want any attention drawn towards her, not now… not yet.

She reached her homeroom doorway too fast for her liking.

For a long moment, she just stood there, staring at the slab of wood and breathing deeply, desperately trying to gather up the courage to actually open it, her hands trembling at her side

Turns out, she didn’t actually have to do it.

A lightly calloused hand landed on her shoulder.

It wasn’t a harsh landing like most of the people in the school would take to doing, even unconsciously, but a light one that curled around her thin shoulder in an almost delicate manner, just enough pressure to make her notice it’s presence.

A hand that smelled of tobacco smoke.

“You’re in the way.”

The voice was a dark tenor, gravely (probably from the smoking) and sounded quite annoyed (although surprisingly soft) with her standing in the doorway knocked her out of her thoughts. She probably would have jumped out of her skin had Reborn’s training not proven to be surprisingly functional in keeping her nerves in check.

Spinning around with speed only a ballet dancer could accomplish, Tsuna faced the man that had snuck up on her.

And there he stood, looking down at her with an expression of mild irritation in his olive-green eyes, the silver-haired bike-driver, standing at about half a head taller than her, his gorgeous eyes piercing her, once again locking her in place, making her unable to find her words. His brow was furrowed in what looked to be default annoyance as he seemed to be observing her like she was observing him.

Only, he wasn’t as pleased with what he was seeing.

It took some time before his words actually sunk in, the realization that she was still blocking the entrance to the classroom dawning on her.

The heat rushed to her face.

Not energy heat, just blood.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind.

“Sorry...” she mumbled, stepping out of the way from the door, allowing the young man the passage he had wanted as she brushed her hair behind her ear.

She stood behind the guy as he almost threw the door open and immediately, all noise died down in the classroom. That is until the occupants broke out into the most obnoxious noise the human being is capable of producing.

Squeeing.

“Oh stars, of stars, it’s him!”

“He’s back!”

“Oh my dear, look at that shirt!”

“Pinch me, I’m dreaming.”

“He’s even hotter than I remember!”

There, Tsuna had to disagree with her fellow classmates.

The guy wasn’t what she would call hot, the way he wore his uniform only gave his appearance the illusion of being a delinquent, thus hiding the true aristocratic nature of his looks.

Tsuna found herself disappointed at this.

He had taken off the red hoodie, having it rolled up under his one arm, showing off the white short-sleeved dress-shirt that he had left unbuttoned, revealing the lighter red Tank-top underneath with a black skull printed across the chest. He had chains hanging from his belt-loops, multiple pendants hanging around his neck. The last things she noticed were the many piercings in his left ear, several bangles wrapped around his wrists and a couple of rings decorated his long fingers, everything having the same delinquent air around them.

He seemed to have done everything in his power to try and make himself look like a delinquent, but Tsuna noticed that he hadn’t just thrown the accessories on for pretense purposes, it was just the way he dressed, and it was such a shame.

Tsuna flinched at the shrill noise that she could hardly believe was coming from the throat of someone of her own gender. She didn’t have to actually look at the young man to know that he had just as big an issue on the subject as she did, if not even more as he was actually responsible for the sounds.

The young man let out a ’tch’ noise, stepping into the classroom, hands obviously (to her) clenched in his pockets as he wove through the small crowd of students that parted for him as he approached a previously empty desk at the back of the classroom, casually plopping down in the seat, throwing his legs up on top and allowing his arm to hang over the back of the chair, the frown still present as he glared at the eyes firmly pinned on him.

With almost all eyes trained on the new guy, Yamamoto rose from his seat, walking unnoticed over to the girl still standing in the doorway.

"Sawada."

Yamamoto frowned when Sawada almost jumped out of her skin at just the mention of her name. She calmed down considerably when she saw that it was him, but the prospect of her being that frightened of him was very worrying for the athlete.

Gently taking her wrist, he pulled the surprisingly stiff girl into the classroom, leading her away from the door.

Finally, he brought the two of them to a stop.

"I was waiting for you last Friday." He told her, eyes filled with worry.

Sawada's shoulders drew together, her eyes almost gravitating to the floor, refusing to look at him.

"I'm sorry." She muttered under her breath.

"What happened?" the athlete asked, gently putting his hand on her trembling shoulder.

Still not looking at him, Sawada pushed his hand away from her, she didn't need to look at his face to know her action had hurt him.

"I don't really want to talk about it." She mumbled, swallowing audibly before she stepped around the athlete, moving towards her desk.

"Wait." Yamamoto almost pleaded, spinning around to grab her by the arm. "Sawada, what happened?"

She could hear the desperation starting to form in his voice, but Tsuna couldn't bring herself to indulge the guy.

"Please don't touch me." She asked, voice barely more than a whisper, but the message more than hit home at the increase of the tremors in Tsuna's arm.

"I'm sorry." Yamamoto relented, releasing her arm, but that didn't mean that he was going to let the subject go. He followed her as she made her way towards her desk. "But Sawada-" of course she didn't allow him to finish his sentence.

Her mind was spinning.

The difference between the new guy’s aristocratic looks and Ben’s looks were great. Where the new guy had been pale, Yamamoto had caramel skin. Where the new guy was about half a head taller than her, Yamamoto towered over her. Yamamoto had the typical Japanese coloring with black hair, going a little off course with hazel eyes but it suited him.

The new guy…

It was obvious to Tsuna.

He was mixed-racial.

"Who is he?" Tsuna cut in as she sat down at her desk.

For a brief moment, Yamamoto didn't understand what she meant, then it hit him.

"Our new classmate." He answered, sitting down in the chair opposite Sawada's desk so that he would be allowed to look her in the face. "He came for a tour and introduction last Friday." Saying this, he threw a glance up over Sawada's head at the transfer student in question, looking up just in time to see the guy staring directly at the back of Sawada's head.

Briefly shocked, Yamamoto looked right back to Sawada, prepared to tell her what he'd just discovered, but stopped short at what he saw.

She knew the guy was looking at her. There was no other way to describe her narrowed glance to the corner of her eye, in the direction of the transfer student.

She wasn't facing him, but she could feel him looking at her.

Sawada wasn’t one for romance, he could deduce that much, she didn’t crush easily on a handsome face. He had realized that much when he’d crashed into her in town that day and she hadn’t blown up into a blushing mess at the sight of him. So now, when Yamamoto found her paying so much attention to the new guy, he couldn’t help but to wonder.

"Interesting…" he heard her mutter.

"What is?"

His voice seemed to snap her out of whatever thought she'd been drowning in, snapping her attention back to him. She met his eyes for a couple of seconds before shaking her head.

"Oh, nothing." She brushed him off, pupils returning to the corner of her eyes, refusing to turn her head to actually look at the man. "Where's he from?"

This did bring a smile to Yamamoto’s lips.

Sawada Tsunako, ever observant. Usually, even if you were of mixed race, you still lived in Japan. None of their classmates would have realized that the new guy really was a foreigner had their teacher not revealed it to them.

"You noticed that huh?"

The look she gave him at his comment almost made the athlete burst out laughing.

It was a look that spoke so plainly "don't sound so surprised".

He was about to answer her, but someone else did it before he could.

"His name is Gokudera Hayato." Sasagawa Kyoko's gentle voice spoke up from their side, it was quite sudden, making the two of them jump in their seats before turning around towards her. "He's originally from Italy." The girl continued, then, the reactions they had to her sudden appearance registered. "Sorry."

As if hearing them, the new guy’s unique eyes immediately snapped away from the back of Tsuna’s head their little group, glaring daggers at them from across the room.

Sasagawa Kyoko was the idol of the school, with her lightly naturally curved body, modest chest, normal height, heart-shaped face, almond-shaped amber eyes with long ginger hair that she usually came to school with it in elaborate updos decorated with flowers or pearls to make it look all the more adorable.

Outside of school, the girl usually wore very girly, frilly clothing that bordered on Lolita, always skirts, always ruffles, almost never anything darker than milk-chocolate brown, never anything higher than flats.

Tsuna wasn't sure if Kyoko was aware of just how uncomfortable she looked walking around in those clothes and hairstyles. It looked almost painstaking for her in Tsuna's eyes.

Even today, when Kyoko's hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail with sections braided and decorated with glittering pearls. Tsuna could practically see the girl twitching from the strain on her hair alone.

"It's okay…" Tsuna finally answered the girl, waving her hand in an attempt at easing her apparent internal self-scolding.

Glancing back to where she knew the guy was still staring at her, Tsuna mumbled under her breath.

"Italy huh…"

A guy named Gokudera Hayato and he’s from Italy?

Yeah… no.

The guy must have two names, one Italian and one Japanese depending on the parent or simply because he wanted them, her father had done that when he married her mother, wanting to accustom himself to his wife’s culture.

Yamamoto raised his eyebrow at her choice of subject.

That country just kept coming up, didn’t it?

"What's so interesting about that?"

He knew that there was something about foreign countries that has been drawing humans away for millennia. But there was just something in the way she said the name of the country that caught his interest like she was tired of hearing it.

Looking between her two classmates, Tsuna contemplated whether or not she should actually tell them or not. Finally, after a good hard look at Yamamoto's face and remembering how downright gullible and stubborn about his beliefs he can be sometimes, she decided to just let up and explain as much as she could to them.

"I don't suppose either of you would remember me speaking weirdly in our earlier days of school?" she asked slowly, fiddling with her fingers.

This threw the two of them off slightly.

"Not really…" Kyoko mumbled slowly, a reaction Tsuna had actually expected.

Yamamoto's however, was not.

"Now that you mention it…" he whispered, looking off into space.

"Well…" Tsuna continued, feeling a little awkward. "It made people think I was retarded because they only understood half of what I was saying." She brushed her hair behind her ear, not looking at either of them. "In reality, I grew up speaking a mix of Japanese and Italian, which made it difficult for me when I realized that not everyone could do that." Her fingers fiddled in front of her on the desk.

She knew, she just knew, that both pairs of eyes had now widened.

"How-" she didn't even bother allowing Kyoko to finish her sentence.

”My family hail from there.” she said, deciding to just blurt it out, feeling that intentionally keeping the information from them would be a needless evil at this point.

"My Dad would be like the new guy." She glanced at the corner of her eye again, not wanting to give away to said guy that they were talking about him. "Half Italian, all the while raised in said country." She allowed herself to look up at her two long-time classmates. "He's actually from a… rather old bloodline I've just recently discovered is very much still around and active back in Europe."

This intrigued both of them.

"How old a bloodline?" Yamamoto found himself asking.

Tsuna found herself hesitating before answering.

"Four hundred years."

This was probably more than Tsuna had ever spoken to someone before, with so many people that could so easily overhear what she was saying, but with the new guy in the room, very few were paying them any attention.

It had come as quite a surprise when it dawned on them that Tsuna was actually a very secretive person, it took a lot for her to reveal something more personal than what they could see. She was there, but she was just a 2D image for all they knew about her.

For a long moment, none of them said anything, just staring at Tsuna's lowered head before Yamamoto's voice broke through the silence between them.

"You're quite the little mystery, aren't you Sawada?"

Letting out a long breath, Tsuna allowed herself to fall onto the desk, burying her face into her arms as she thought back on everything she'd been told over the last few days.

Not to mention everything she hasn't.

“Don’t I know it,” she mumbled into her skin.

* * *

She'd made it through the first lesson.

The teacher had asked her what had happened for her to miss one day but Tsuna hadn't been able to answer him, burying her head into her arms to show the man that she really, really, didn't want to talk about what had happened to her.

Of course, there would still be a few people that didn't get the message.

A gentle tap on her shoulder forced Tsuna to raise her head from the desk.

"Sawada." A gentle male voice rolled through the air, entering her ear in the calmest manner anyone could hope to achieve.

Turning towards the voice, Tsuna was met with the familiar head of wavy chestnut hair, bright blue eyes boring down on her with a worried expression their owner did not even bother to hide.

It was strange to see him. She'd made it almost a point to never be alone with him, not because she didn't like him, but because he deserved something a lot better.

Even more now than ever before.

"Fujitaka?" she asked softly, straightening herself out. "What is it?"

The poor young man looked as though he wanted to bolt, his entire being trembling and eyes refusing to look at her for longer than a couple of seconds.

Really, she felt bad for him.

"I was wondering…" the ballet dancer was barely keeping himself from stuttering. "Why were you absent last Friday?" she knew that question was going to pop up, but it wasn't any easier just because of that. "The teacher hadn't received any word and I was worried."

Obviously, the last particular part wasn't said intentionally.

"You were worried?" Tsuna found herself asking before she could stop herself.

His bright blue eyes widened in terrified shock.

"I-I didn't m-mean it l-like-"

Taking pity on the guy, Tsuna decided to cut him off.

"It's okay." She stated, putting a small hand over his mouth, having quickly maneuvered herself so she was sitting on her chair on her knees. She could practically feel the poor guy shivering under her touch. "I just… don't particularly want to talk about it."

Slowly, she removed her hand from his face, though his shoulders remained stiff.

Finally, he shook himself, allowing his shoulders to relax.

"I see…" he breathed, eyes clouded over with an emotion Tsuna hadn't seen before, thus had no idea how to interpret.

For a long moment, he just stared at her with that strange expression, he didn't snap out of it until Tsuna literally snapped her fingers in front of his face.

Taking a deep breath, Fujitaka brushed his hair from his eyes.

"Well…" he mumbled. "I hope you're alright now."

And with that, the ballet boy turned around and walked back to his own desk.

"I do too…" Tsuna mumbled, falling back down onto her arms, hoping for a moment to clear her mind, to allow her a short moment to calm down her frantic nerves.

Of course, people wouldn't allow her that.

"Sawada," Yamamoto spoke up from behind her, forcing her to turn around to face him. "Please." He begged. "What happened?"

She gave him a long look before she turned right back around again.

"I'm not saying." She replied shortly.

For whatever reason, Yamamoto couldn't seem to accept that.

"Why not?"

The second he finished his sentence, her dainty little hand was shoved almost directly under his nose, his eyes crossed for a moment until he took a step back, still staring at the hand, and it wasn't until at that moment that he realized just how much it was trembling.

It was shaking so much that one must fear putting a can of soda in it.

Slowly, Yamamoto looked back up to Tsuna's face, seeing her serious expression.

"This is me at just the thought of vocally relaying what happened." She stated, her voice surprisingly steady despite the state of her hand, her eyes narrowing at the young man sitting behind her. "Why do you think?"

"Right…" Yamamoto answered slowly, bringing up his hand to bring her's down from his face. "I'm sorry for pressuring you."

"It's okay." She answered, turning back around to the front of the classroom.

* * *

A few rows down, the transfer student stared at the back of the messy-haired girl, his eyes unwavering with his head resting on top of his knuckles.

He’d been sent here, for that?

He couldn’t for the life of him understand what was supposed to make that tiny porcelain doll special in the eyes of his superiors, she was a tiny, trembling mess that jumped as soon as someone just touched her shoulder.

But, he was not the kind of person to turn away an opportunity when it was given.

He would do what was asked of him, and if that involved the close study of the fragile thing a few rows ahead, then he will do it.

His fingers twitched.

Stars, he needed a smoke.

“Sawada Tsunako, huh?” he mused to himself through the annoying chatter of the class around him, picking up his pen to spin it between his fingers.

* * *

It was the break between their last class and the final one, a space on the schedule that was usually blank for Tsuna, so it was strange for her that, instead of turning right as she stepped out of the classroom in the direction of the exit, she turned left.

Turns out, she wasn't the only one who found this strange.

"Hey Sawada!" the familiar voice of the star athlete called out to her, forcing her to a stop before turning around to see him lightly jogging to catch up with her. "Where are you going?" his face sported the strangest combination of confusion and worry.

For a moment, Tsuna didn't know whether or not she should actually answer the guy, but eventually, she decided that she actually didn't see any faults in the knowledge.

"A.A." was her short answer.

Of course, seeing as how she'd complained about said course's teacher several times to the athlete, he looked very much taken aback at his reply.

It took a second before he shook the shock off of his face.

"You're taking the acceptance test?" he asked, adopting a voice that Tsuna had a feeling was supposed to be encouraging but really just came across as severely confused in her ears.

"No." she answered, fingers clenching around the straps of her bag. "The teacher's already accepted me without me taking it."

Hazel eyes narrowed, black eyebrows furrowing in the rare serious expression that few knew even existed where Yamamoto was concerned.

"Is this favoritism?" he asked, waving a hand in the air.

This made Tsuna frown as well, feeling almost filthy at the thought of Reborn favoring her, it was just too weird a concept.

“No.” she answered swiftly, shifting her weight from one foot to another as her gaze drifted away from her long term classmate. “The class is some kind of emotional control course that the teacher felt I need to take part in.” her hand rose, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear as she attempted to look anywhere but at the young man in front of her.

"Huh…" Yamamoto breathed out, all seriousness suddenly gone from his face. Tsuna took this as a sign that it was alright to look at him again. "Then… what is that test about?"

Truth be told, Tsuna had been asking herself that question for a while now, but she had had too many questions, too many things on her mind for her to remember that thought.

"Don't know." She answered easily, looking away again for a second before she once again locked eyes with him. "Should I ask him?"

"Why not?" Yamamoto answered almost immediately.

The sound of the school bell ringing through the air brought their conversation to a halt, the warning bell. The two classmates broke eye-contact to absently stare into the air, listening to the clinging bells resonating through the building.

Turning his eyes back down to the tiny girl in front of him, Yamamoto put his hands on her shoulders, spinning her around before giving her a light shove in the direction she had been heading.

"Off you go.” he waved at her in a playfully dismissive manner. “Solve the mystery." And with that said, he too spun around, heading down the hallway with a much lighter step than he had had through the day.

* * *

Moving through the school, Tsuna followed the directions Reborn had given her the day before, pausing at every other turn to try and make sure that she remembered the words of the teacher correctly.

She'd just climbed the stairs to the third floor when a hand grabbed her wrist.

Immediately, panic surged through her body, causing her to quickly spin around, yanking her wrist out of the foreign hand's grip, shrinking away against the concrete wall to put herself as far away from whoever had snuck up on her as possible.

She looked towards her possible attacker and suddenly, her nerves eased.

Almost sagging against the wall, Tsuna allowed herself to take a few deep breaths as she took in the bewildered expression on Hibari Kyoya's face.

"What happened?" the head prefect asked, eyes narrowing as he took a few steps up towards her.

Knowing what would happen if she told him the truth, Tsuna optioned towards the safer option.

"Nothing." She mumbled, massaging her wrist. "You just surprised me."

He didn't believe it, she could clearly see the disbelief in his steely eyes, but thankfully, he decided to not press for the information.

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, the head prefect looked every bit like the person in power he was.

"I've seen you spend quite a bit of time with Yamamoto Takeshi." He said, causing the young woman to raise an eyebrow at his choice of subject.

"I wouldn't say I've spent that much time with him." She mumbled, bringing up a hand to brush the fold of her other arm, turning her attention away from the surprisingly short yet powerful young man blaring down on her.

She could have sworn she saw a steel gray eye twitch from the corner of her vision.

"More than you spend with anyone else." He countered, sounding more like a little kid arguing than a Prefect. It was a very strange experience.

"I guess," Tsuna answered, tilting her head in through before she looked back to the Prefect. "But that's not really saying anything."

This, obviously didn't matter to the Prefect.

"I don't want you to spend too much time with that guy."

This made Tsuna frown.

The guy saw it as his business who she hung out with? Since when did the two of them have the kind of relationship that allowed him that? How long had he thought of that as one of his many, many duties in school?

"Why?" she asked before she could stop herself.

The head prefect did not appreciate being questioned.

"Don't ask questions." He ordered, easily brushing off the subject before pointing down the corridor she'd been headed down. "Go to class."

Slowly, Tsuna followed his demand.

"Alright…" she mumbled, turning around as she peeled herself off of the wall.

"And herbivore." He called out, causing Tsuna to once again pause in her path, turning around towards the young man that had called out to her. "Don't be afraid to seek me out if you need anything." And with that said, the head prefect turned around to walk down the opposite end of the corridor.

For a long moment, Tsuna just stood there, staring after the head prefect before he disappeared behind the corner.

"This day is just getting weirder." She whispered before she kept walking.

* * *

She found the classroom, only she found herself freezing in front of the door.

Apparently, Reborn had taken it upon himself to create a logo for the class, developed a plaque for said logo, and fastened into the door she was now standing in front of. However, that was not the reason she'd frozen up at the sight of that logo.

Slowly, Tsuna lifted the pendant from under her shirt, bringing it up in front of her line of sight, and there it was.

Her crest, the crest she'd had around her neck for a long, long time, had a central symbol in the shape of an intricate flame, surrounded by other strange shapes, pearls, a pair of shotguns of all things and a winged clam. It was a strange yet beautiful design that she'd grown so accustomed to seeing, and now…

Tsuna let the pendant to fall back against her chest, her attention once again drawn to the logo on the door.

It was the exact same flame symbol as the one on her crest, only without everything surrounding it.

It was a strange thing to see.

Questions raging through her head, Tsuna grabbed the handle of the door and almost threw it open, stepping into the classroom where the teacher was waiting for her.

"Ah, Tsunako." Reborn greeted her, stepping out from behind the desk, spreading his arms out in a sarcastic "showing off" or the room she'd stepped into. "Welcome to A.A."

It looked just like any other regular classroom in the building, if it wasn't for the logo stuck to the door she would have believed she'd stepped into the wrong room.

"That symbol…" She muttered, pointing towards the now closed door.

"Yes." Reborn finished for her. "I took the central piece of the crest hanging around your neck." He gave her a self-satisfied smirk. "Quite fitting don't you think?"

"I suppose it is…" Tsuna reluctantly agreed, allowing her bag to fall onto the desk closest to her. "But what does it mean?"

"The crest would be your own personal one," Reborn informed her as he stepped up to her, picking up the pendant from where it still rested against her chest, lifting it up in between them as he showed off the symbol. "This central piece, however, will be found on the personal crests of everyone in your family one way or another." He moved his fingers towards the flame in the middle. "But remember." He paused, making her turn up to look up into his eyes. "Only the main branch of the family is allowed to have this symbol at the center of their crests."

"Huh…" Tsuna found herself mumbling, plucking the pendant from the teacher's fingers.

Satisfied that she'd understood his answer, Reborn stepped away from his only student, allowing her the time to put her pendant back under her shirt.

"You know." She spoke up, buttoning up the front of her shirt. "One of my classmates asked me about your entrance test."

Reborn turned back towards her, eyebrow rising.

"What of it?" he asked, sounding quite bored.

The reaction pulled a groan from Tsuna's mouth as she took a few steps up towards the raised dais at the front of the room.

"What's the deal with it?"

Sighing, Reborn sat back down behind his desk, putting his hands on top of it as he turned his eyes back on his student.

"It's a test handling situation." He explained, linking his fingers together. "I basically watch the students through my other eyes as they take it."

His "other eyes" were the eyes he called the strange glowing ones he used whenever he wanted to see the state of her flame core. But the fact that he openly stated that he was using it on someone that wasn't her, made her just the tiniest bit confused.

Wasn't the flames something only her family had?

"Why?" she asked, expressing her confusion.

Tsuna watched as Reborn looked at her in the most degrading manner, almost as if he was thinking about just how idiotic she was, only serving to confuse her even more than she already was.

Then, she watched in mild fascination as that look morphed into realization.

"Right." He breathed. "I haven't told you."

Tsuna narrowed her eyes at this.

"Told me what?"

Squaring his shoulders, Reborn raised himself from the chair once again, hands stuffed in his pockets as he stalked over to his students, taking on that instructor voice that she'd gotten so used to hearing.

He cleared his throat.

"Whilst the Cuor DiLeone have a natural affinity for Anima, they aren't the only ones capable of activating it." He watched as the brief moment of disbelief flashed across his student's eyes. "There are a few human beings, say…" he paused for a moment, glancing into the air in a rather exaggerated look of thought. "Every fifth person." He finished, looked back down at his student. "Have a strong enough determination to activate the power as well."

Tsuna could feel her eyes widening in understanding.

"So the test is…" she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

"It's to see if there is any awakened people in this school." He walked around her, tilting his head from left to right before he corrected himself. "Or, 'Ignited' as we like to say." He turned around just as she did, once again meeting each other's eyes. "So far, everyone has failed."

He really did not look like he approved of these statistics.

"So…" Tsuna spoke up, brushing her hair behind her ear. "I'm 'Ignited'?" she asked, trying out the new term that had been thrown at her.

"No." was Reborn's immediate answer, throwing Tsuna for a loop. "I'd say you Ignited when you were a child for you to be Ashened." He explained, seeing the look on her face. "You're currently 'Embering'."

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna allowed herself to fall into one of the desks.

"Why would they Ashen me?" she asked, leaning her head onto her knuckles.

Reborn almost rolled his eyes at her reaction.

"Tsunako." He kneed down in front of her. "Even if you are the Phoenix, the flames are still dangerous." Tsuna slowly straightened in her seat, eyes firmly locked with her teachers, soaking in his words like a sponge. "As a child, your body would have still been in the development phase, not to mention having little to no control of your emotions." He leaned in closer, his expression almost blank. "Just imagine a phoenix younger than seven on the loose in a playground."

It didn't take long before Tsuna let out a sigh of resignation.

"A danger to everyone, including themselves."

"Exactly." Reborn immediately responded, getting up from the floor. "Now." He brushed his hands against one another. "Shall we begin?"

Taking a deep breath, Tsuna moved to sit on top of the desk.

"May as well."

* * *

She should have seen it coming.

She really should have, but everything had completely left her mind, so she wasn't thinking when she opened the door from inside of the A.A. classroom, pulling her bag over her shoulder as she stepped out into the corridor.

It was the silence that alerted her that something was up.

Slowly closing the door behind her, Tsuna allowed herself to glance around the room, and the sight made her blood run cold.

They were staring at her.

Everyone in the corridor was staring at her with mixed expressions that almost washed over her being as she took in their reactions.

Really… how could she have expected any other reaction?

A.A. was famous for never accepting any students into its course and suddenly the schools previously most bullied student is seen exiting when school is still in session. As the acceptance tests always took place after school hours, that could only really mean one thing where she was concerned.

Somehow, Dame-Tsuna had been accepted into the class.

She could feel the questions almost radiating off of the students surrounding her, and she really, really did not want to be subjected to them.

Before any of the teenagers surrounding her could work through their thoughts to find the question, Tsuna clenched her fingers around the straps of her bag, forced her legs into action and bolted.

Still running, she wove through the students as they moved to the cafeteria. Some did throw curious glances at her as she passed them but otherwise, they didn't pay her any attention, which was all fine and good with her.

What wasn't all fine and good, however, was her balance.

Even with her brain slowly healing itself now when her seal was breaking, her balance still had a tendency to remain sub-par, and it was at a moment such as this that it finally decided to show itself once more.

She tripped, she didn't know over what but she suddenly found herself falling forward, the floor rapidly closing in with her face.

Suddenly, her fall came to a stop.

A pair of calloused hands on her waist yanked her up, spinning her around as she was raised, and suddenly she once again found herself staring into the eyes of the transfer student.

He'd caught her?

Why had he caught her?

Surprisingly gently, Gokudera raised Tsuna back to her feet, making sure that she had regained her balance before he let go of her.

It took an embarrassingly long time before Tsuna realized that her hands were on his forearms, tightly clutching onto his skin.

Forearms…

Why did she have to find them so attractive?

Shaking her head, Tsuna yanked her hands away from his pale skin, awkwardly stepping away from him.

"I'm sorry." She muttered, refusing to look at the very attractive young man.

For a moment, he just looked at her, taking in her actions, her silent language that she'd learned to read. She knew what he was seeing, what information he was probably gathering by looking her over.

She knew she probably didn't look at all interesting.

Finally, the transfer student stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Whatever."

Having got her reply, Tsuna gave a short nod, wasting not one second before she started walking again, silently rounding the transfer student and disappearing down the hallway, fingers returning to the strap on her bag.

She didn't see the slightly confused expression that passed over Gokudera's face as she walked, watching her leave, brow furrowing when he noticed that she wasn't turning back to look at him. He had seen that their encounter had affected her, he'd seen the tremors and the nervous fiddling, but she was acting as though nothing had happened, but he knew differently. She'd brushed him off too frantically.

If she'd been any other girl he'd encountered, she would have allowed her touch to linger for as long as possible, but she hadn't.

He kept looking after her as she disappeared down the hall, and she could feel his eyes on her the entire way.


	9. Inevitable Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interactions, questions and reveals

_ **May 26** _

_ **Tuesday 2215** _

Having a new guy in class all of the sudden was really strange for Tsuna. Particularly one that was somehow gaining just as much attention as Yamamoto did, and he’d been around for years. And yet, Gokudera Hayato didn’t seem to be able to care less about the attention he was getting.

No matter what any of his fans did in a half-assed, no doubt desperate attempt to capture his attention, the guy didn’t even spare them with a FIRST glance.

He was ignoring every custom or tradition of their country, seemingly doing everything in his power to come off as rude and unapproachable.

And yet… no matter what he did, he still managed to do it with an ingrained air of elegance and… funnily enough, chivalry. Tsuna had no doubt it was because of this that everyone kept coming back, something that she had no doubt he’d attempted to train away on multiple occasions but stubbornly remained stitched into the very fabric of his upbringing.

It was a very strange thing to witness.

So many contradictions…

There was another thing she noticed.

The silvery-white of his hair was all-natural. No bleach or coloring chemicals in sight.

No, peek of outgrown roots, no subtle irritation to his scalp, not even a hint of color residue stubbornly clinging to his alabaster skin.

Gokudera Hayato was the descendant of a plague survivor. It made Tsuna wonder which one of his parents passed down that overpowering gene to him and if he was still living with them after his move from Italy.

Would she ask him these things?

No, she would not.

If the guy wanted to be left alone, who was she to interfere with that?

Honestly speaking, Tsuna had expected more from returning to school.

She had expected herself to be jumpy (that had been true), she had expected herself to burst into flames at every little sound (that, however, hadn’t been).

She wasn’t ignored in class, but no one paid any particular attention to her, allowing her to simply blend in with the rest of the students in the classroom.

It was a rather nice change.

She hadn’t even felt that tingling sensation once ever since she’d returned.

That made her both happy, and just a bit weary.

She was Sawada Tsunako, Dame-Tsuna, nothing has ever gone well for her in a school setting.

* * *

You’d be surprised at how rare afternoons where Tsuna was able to return to an empty house had become after Reborn had moved in.

She really couldn’t help the sigh of absolute relief that escaped her lips when she stepped up to the front door that afternoon to find the house locked up. A locked house meant an empty house, and an empty house meant, finally some alone time.

Slipping into her bedroom, Tsuna dropped her bag onto the floor before she almost collapsed in front of her desk, shuffling through her drawers for piles of papers and ink. She’d been thinking about drawing with one of the beautiful quill pens her Dad had gotten her when he caught wind of her interest in art.

Only, when she looked for an ink bottle, she soon came to find that her old ink bottle had completely dried up. She hadn’t used it in so long and she’d somehow left the lid loose enough that all of the liquid had been rendered completely useless.

Groaning, Tsuna chucked the old bottle in the trash-can, letting her head fall into her hand as she thought over what she was supposed to do now.

She couldn’t just turn to a normal ink pen, it would give a completely different effect than the one she wanted. She wanted to use a quill pen, but how could she do that when she’d got no ink to dip it in?

It was at that moment that she remembered something.

She did have another ink bottle, an ink bottle that she hadn’t seen or even thought about since the moment she’d received it. She’d as good had hidden it away from herself in her drawer filled with swatches of spare cloth.

She hadn’t opened that drawer ever since.

Now, she found herself cautiously reaching down to pull said drawer out.

And there it was.

The surprisingly large, glittering crystal bottle the shape of an upside-down teardrop filled with that thick black liquid laid comfortably on top of a pillow of miscellaneous scrap cloth and lace that Tsuna had removed from various garments she hadn’t completely approved of. Mostly from when Papa had been adamant about sending her overly girly and frilly things before the two of them reached something of an agreement as he learned about her love for over-sized sweaters. The beautifully carved thing looked incredibly out of place among the wide array of colors within the drawer.

Gingerly, Tsuna lifted the bottle from its make-shift bed, bringing it up to the light before carefully setting it down onto her desk.

It was a rather difficult task considering the thing didn’t have a universal foot to stand on until she realized one of the bottle’s sides was flatter than the others allowing it to lie on the desk with the bottle-neck pointing up in the air.

Clever… tilting the ink straight towards the opening, okay… she can get behind that.

Was it just the bottle or did the ink have something of a rainbow sheen to it?

Was it made of crow feathers or… what?

It took quite some time before she could bring herself to remove the delicate-looking crystal bottle-topper, pulling it out of the neck as slowly as possible as though shaking the liquid would cause something to happen.

The second the topper was free, the strangest sensation rushed over her, like a cold breeze washing over her from the front, yet her windows were all shut, there was no wind, and her hair hadn’t moved more than it naturally should have.

Deciding to shake off the sensation, Tsuna allowed herself to dip the tip of a beautifully carved silver quill pen into the ink and lowered it onto the paper with great trepidation.

No hesitation, no repeated strokes, quill pens don’t work well with such things.

In the beginning… well, that was easier said than done.

There was just something about the ink that made her feel…

Funny.

Eventually, though, her wrist began to move with more ease, her strokes easing up and finally beginning to look like what she wanted them to.

She stopped thinking, allowing her mind to clear of everything, and thus, it came as a shock to her when she looked down and found herself doodling those same strange symbols that she’d been scribbling in her sketchbook the day Reborn had first arrived at her home.

She’d looked down just as she’d made the last line on the… symbol? she’d been doodling, and it was at that moment that it happened.

Unlike when the bottle was just opened, this time, the strangest sensation trickled over her skin, a feeling akin to the sensation of sticking her hand into a bucket of thin slime that sticks to the skin even as you pull it out. A sensation that had come so suddenly, so strange and unexplainable that Tsuna actually dropped her pen, sending it clattering onto the desk as she violently shoved herself away from the slab of wood.

Staring wide-eyed at the small splatter of ink next to the symbol, Tsuna could only think of one way to react.

“What in the world?”

* * *

_ **May 27** _

_ **Wednesday 2217** _

She hadn’t meant for it to remain in her head for so long.

She’d hoped that she’d have forgotten those odd sensations overnight, but they stubbornly remained in her head, sending tingles all over her skin by the time she woke up that morning to the sound of her alarm, her entire being weighed down by her thoughts of the afternoon before.

She’d made her way through breakfast and the remains of her morning routine relying mostly on autopilot, and even now, as she was moving down the well-known road towards the school building, her mind still mulling over the ink bottle she’d been quick to tuck away, she was barely even aware that she was moving at all.

Of course, moving through the roads without actually paying attention was dangerous, and thus, it was only a matter of time before it happened.

She had been so caught up in her own thoughts, her entire being overwhelmed by the stress that she didn’t notice the change in the air, the wind shifting until she rounded a corner, walking out on the road leading directly to the school. The part of the road that she usually encountered Yamamoto on.

The scattered minds of both Tsuna and the driver of the familiar black, silent hoverbike resulted in Tsuna almost getting run over by the vehicle had her instincts not kicked into high gear, jerking her out of the way, the driver managing to stop the engine before something serious could occur.

However, that didn’t stop Tsuna from falling over from the sheer force of the turn, causing her to lose her balance.

It may have gotten better after the accident by a long shot, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still bad.

Feeling a little disoriented, Tsuna managed to turn herself towards the driver, just in time to see the driver take off his helmet.

Of all the people she could have encountered in her current state of mind, it had to be Gokudera Hayato.

It wasn’t that she hated her new classmate, she didn’t know anything about him and he hadn’t really done anything to her so she couldn’t dislike him, and she has yet to find someone that she could actually hate.

She dislikes quite a few people, but she doesn’t hate anyone.

It was just that…

He kind of unnerved her.

During the past two days, she had felt an itch at the back of her neck, and every time she had felt that she had found Gokudera looking at her with this unreadable expression that she just couldn’t place. And that’s what made her nervous.

She didn’t know what he may want with her.

The thought of what Mochida had done to her always come back to her whenever she saw that look, even though he didn’t give off that same vibe as Mochida.

She would never escape that incident.

Holding the helmet in his hands, Gokudera looked down at her, piercing her with those olive-green eyes that have practically haunted her mind the past two days.

“Watch where you’re going,” he growled, narrowing his eyes at her.

Really, he should have been the one to watch where he was going as he was the one with the vehicle between the two of them but Tsuna really didn’t dare to point that out. Plus, she really didn’t have the time to argue.

“Sorry.” She mumbled, swallowing heavily as she peeled herself off of the ground, knowing perfectly well that the young man was still looking at her from atop his vehicle. She tried to not mind him.

However, it would appear that he wouldn’t have her ignoring him.

She was just about to start walking again when he called out to her.

“Hey!” he called out, forcing her to a stop, cautiously turning towards him.

She had barely turned when something surprisingly large came hurling towards her.

Gasping, her hands flew up to catch that something, and thankfully, she succeeded in doing so, and suddenly, she found herself holding the helmet that she’d just seen Gokudera remove from his own head.

Blinking, Tsuna moved her gaze towards the new member of her class.

She gave him a questioning look.

“Put it on.” He practically ordered, putting her in a mindlessly blinking silence yet again. He rolled his own eyes at her reaction. “You’ll be late if you walk,” he sounded surprisingly genuine through his gravelly voice. “I’m sure you’re like everyone else and apparently allergic to tardiness.” He rolled his eyes at his own words, leaning over the front of the vehicle as he almost glared at her.

Right… he was too new to the town to know.

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Tsuna fiddled with the helmet.

“If you want to survive until graduation, you’d better get on that train.” She mumbled, mostly to herself.

Immediately, anger flashed through the guy’s eyes.

“What did you say?” he growled.

“Nothing.” Tsuna immediately piped up, hesitantly approaching the vehicle, swallowing before she held up the helmet between her hands, not taking her eyes off of the teenager for a second. He had that look again, the exact same expression he had when he looked at her in class.

Just what did it mean?

She looked down at the helmet again.

“What about you?” she asked, indicating for the dark sphere in between her dainty little hands.

Gokudera shook his head, straightening out his back.

“Just have the one.” He answered with a look, silently asking her to get a move on. They were starting to run a little late.

This visibly worried Tsuna, her eyes falling back to the helmet.

Even though they were pressed for time, Tsuna still found herself hesitating as she looked down at the helmet between her hands.

If they happened to end up in an accident when on that bike, he would most likely end up with much more injuries than her, well, at least more damaging injuries to his very brain.

“But, what if-?” she didn’t get to finish her sentence before the delinquent-like transfer student suddenly straightened in his seat on top of the vehicle, letting out a loud, annoyed groan as his hands clenched on the handlebars.

She froze at the look he gave her.

“Do you want a ride or not?” his voice promised years of pain if she didn’t make up her mind, and fast.

She couldn’t say one more word. Instead, she rather hesitantly slipped the helmet over her head, moving towards the vehicle as she fastened the strap under her jaw. She didn’t get any help to get to the top of the vehicle, not that she needed one. She tried not to think that she was getting very closely behind a very handsome young man as she thanked everything pure that her flexibility allowed her to climb onto the hoverbike with little to no problem.

She had barely gotten onto the vehicle before Gokudera kicked the motor into high gear, the roar of life from the motor not noticeable through the sound, but more from the vibration from the vehicle she was now sitting on.

The guy set the vehicle into motion, shooting off at a breakneck speed that forced Tsuna to throw her arms around the torso in front of her, pressing her entire body tightly to the semi-strangers back, her eyes tightly clenched.

She didn’t dare open her eyes.

Most girls in this scenario probably would have gone giddy over the solid feel of his back or drooled over the fact they were so close, but the only thought that ran thought Tsuna’s head was:

_I’m going to die!_

* * *

She had a surprisingly strong grip.

Gokudera was moderately impressed at the strength of the noodle-thin arms wrapped around his torso, the helmet digging into the space between his shoulder-blades as he steered the vehicle down the streets, but he was adamant about not making anything from it.

Finally, the two of them reached the school, and instead of calmly sliding to a stop like he probably should have given his passenger, he kept up with his regular method of rearing to a stop, gaining some sense of smug pleasure from the way her thin arms tightened even further around his torso.

Finally, the vehicle stopped moving, lowering to the ground, but his passenger still remained locked in place behind him.

Groaning in annoyance, Gokudera glanced over his shoulder at the lightly trembling frame of the doll-like girl.

“You can let go now,” he growled, giving her thin arms a tug to forge her out of her terrified state.

Immediately, the noodle-like arms were yanked away from around him, the lithe form almost shooting away from his back, finally allowing him the personal space he desired.

“Sorry...” her voice was barely more than a whisper.

He took the sudden movement in the air behind him as the doll-like girl quickly removing herself from his bike, and soon enough, he heard two pairs of feet landing almost silently on the pavement at his side.

He allowed himself to actually look at the girl as she fidgeted where she stood, straightening out her uniform before she threaded her arm through the straps of her bag and lifted her hands up to unclasp the strap of the helmet under her jaw. He watched as she removed the helmet completely from her head, the lifting of her hair revealing more of her face than he’d ever seen before, probably more than anyone had seen in a while.

Gokudera found himself actually surprised.

He’d heard many stories about how the doll-like girl in front of him was unhygienic, dirty, a disgusting slob that no one wanted to get physically close to, but now, now he got a brief glimpse of just how clean her face actually was. No blemish in sight and he had certainly not smelt anything from her apart from citrus-scented soap or shampoo.

She was clean, but she didn’t appear to be.

Why couldn’t she do anything about that mess she had for hair?

Awkwardly, the girl handed him his helmet, only glancing at him from the corner of her semi-visible eye.

He didn’t say anything, give her any sign that he had heard her at all, he just signaled with his hand for her to get a move on, leaving over the front of the bike.

“Thank you.” She mumbled.

He didn’t bother answering, taking the helmet away from her fragile-looking hands, and with the weight removed, the doll disappeared towards the building, the yard almost completely empty due to the two of them having arrived later than normal. Gokudera watched as she vanished through the man doors, helmet still clasped in between his hands.

She had thanked him.

She’d barely looked at him, and she’d thanked him.

That had never happened before, at least, without the bright blushing cheeks he was so used to seeing on the attractive young women that gravitate towards him.

For the doll was attractive, there was no doubt about that.

There was no way she was unaware of that herself.

She was a rare girl that did very little with her uniform.

Where most others would have tried to make it overly cute or sexy, she kept hers mostly intact, not doing anything to it. In fact, she wore hers a few sizes larger than it should be to fit properly, sure, she didn’t go out of her way to show off her long legs by having a skirt just barely covering her ass when she bent forward, she had the standard length of mid-thigh, not showing too much but just enough to catch the eye of a few males.

She did have a nice set of legs, any red-blooded teenager who found that appealing would be able to notice that but Gokudera didn’t have the patience for those kinds of attractions towards anyone.

What he wanted to know what, what made her treat him so different from the other girls.

At first, when he had seen the change he had had this suspicion that she did it in order to stand out from all the others, but she had acted totally without any romantic attraction towards him from the moment he had first almost run her over.

When she had seen him she had had this look of weariness on her face. Anyone who really was crushing on him would have started blushing furiously and squealed loud enough for his eardrums to burst (as was his unfortunate norm), but she had remained silent.

When he had thrown her the helmet, telling her to get on, she had been confused. Where many would probably have jumped at the chance to ride behind him on his bike, she had been hesitant, cautious. She had surprised him when she had asked whether or not he had a second helmet, clearly worried about his well being when they barely knew one another.

The last thing that had convinced him that she clearly wasn’t crushing on him, was the way she had been hugging his torso on the way there.

Only her arms had been touching him, her hands had been locked around her own wrists. She had been terrified during the ride over how fast he had been driving and she had wanted something to hold on to, but she had felt too awkward about actually touching him with her hands.

She was a girl from their class that apparently wasn’t crushing on him, or that baseball idiot (their conversation from last Monday was far too casual and her performance back then didn’t indicate that she was crushing on him either), and no matter how much of a refreshing change that was, he couldn’t help but to wonder whether or not that was because she was crushing on someone else in the school, she was ace, or simply because she wasn’t like all those other teenagers actively seeking out a relationship for the sake of romance or physical pleasure.

Yeah right.

But still… the image she portrayed…

Those regular teenagers wanted to be in a relationship so badly that they “fall in love” with the first attractive person they see, liking only their looks and not their personality.

The kind of girl that Sawada Tsunako tried to pass herself off as was the one that would one day fall deeply in love, but when she did it wouldn’t be because of the person’s looks, she would have most likely already know the person for quite some time before she started developing that kind of emotion for them.

Like a demiromantic.

As if he would believe that kind of act.

He had kept his eyes on Sawada’s retreating back until she disappeared into the building before he allowed himself to finally get off of his vehicle.

He wasn’t worried about being late to the classroom, no teacher would dare to give him any punishments either way.

He was too good a student despite his attitude.

* * *

Tsuna had to keep herself from running into the classroom that morning, effortlessly weaving through the classmates still standing between the desks even when the start of class was only minutes away, until she finally plopped herself down in her own chair, giving her desk a hard enough knock to light up the screen, allowing her to quickly log in within the span of only one minute, a record for her really.

She was not the only one that noticed her breaking her tardiness record.

Takeshi let out a chuckle as he took in her lightly disheveled appearance, leaning over his own desk to tap her on the shoulder in an action that had become surprisingly common since the start of term.

Sure enough, the girl turned around to look at him.

Too much had happened in too short a time that morning.

She groaned into the fold of her arms at her own thoughts.

He smiled at her.

“Cutting it close, aren’t you Sawada?” Takeshi laughed goodnaturedly, giving her a teasing kind of smile.

She nodded back, her face neutral despite her slightly panted breaths as she brushed a few tangled locks behind her ear.

“I got a ride...” she mumbled, sounding quite uncomfortable at the fact.

This made Takeshi raise an eyebrow.

Got a ride?

Sawada walked to school, didn’t she?

Her mother also walked to work, he knew that as the Crescent bakery is rather close to his father’s sushi shop leading to him frequently spotting the woman (he had only known she was Sawada’s mother after they had met in the hospital), so she couldn’t possibly have gotten a ride from her. He suspected her family didn’t even own a car, or if they did, her father was the one actually using it wherever he was.

So who could she have gotten a ride from?

He decided to scrap that thought for a later time, optioning on giving the girl a much more gentle smile than the one he’d just given her.

“Aren’t you a lucky one?” he asked, watching as he hurriedly looked away from him.

Tsun really wouldn’t call herself that. She was anything but lucky and most of the class knew that, but she didn’t want to contradict him when he had that expression on.

“I guess...” was her eventual, nonchalant answer.

She turned back around, lying down on her desk once again.

It was at that moment that the classroom door opened once again, closely followed by the annoying sound of a group of their classmates bursting out into shrieks of delight that could only be the arrival of the newest addition to their class.

Honestly, one would think that they had gotten used to seeing him, what with them sharing the same class and all, but no. the ear-bursting noise continued.

Suddenly, a thought struck Takeshi.

Sawada had said that she had gotten a ride, and she’d arrived just a minute before Gokudera had, and Gokudera arrives at school driving a hoverbike.

Had Sawada somehow managed to hitch a ride with the silver-haired delinquent?

The thought was so strange, so out there, that Takeshi couldn’t help but worry that it was the truth.

After all, after just a few weeks of knowing the girl, Takeshi was already well aware of her ability to unknowingly changing things in her favor.

He found himself frowning, something that is not usually seen on him.

Would Sawada become friends with Gokudera?

* * *

Class started as scheduled, but Tsuna’s mind was focused only on what had happened on the way to school.

Almost the whole building had passed Gokudera off as an insensitive mean bad-boy that didn’t care for human life at all and was only in school for the knowledge they freely gave him, an attractive someone who was most likely to turn into a serial killer or gang member or something that the right person could “change” with a little bit of love.

But Tsuna knew differently.

After having personally experienced what it was like when faced with someone who truly had no empathy for her and saw her as little more than a bug to step on, Tsuna felt capable enough to tell as to whether or not someone truly had frightening intentions or a warped mindset.

Gokudera was not like that.

* * *

The day went on as usual. Boring classes on which she mostly doodled her way through and a Lunch break where she once again silently thanked her mother for the absolutely wonderful meal she had prepared for her.

She had been mostly running on fumes during the last class and finally having something in her stomach was a great relief.

Gokudera hadn’t been looking at her as much as he had been before, like the ride he had given her that morning had shown him whatever he was looking for and he didn’t need to keep looking anymore. That alone was a huge weight off of her shoulders.

Everything had been going so smoothly that she had completely forgotten about those who had caused her absence to begin with.

She hadn’t seen them so she didn’t think about them.

Well, she was about to.

Ever since Tsuna had stopped taking those pills, she’d felt a rather drastic change within her body.

Just the first day she was off them, she went out like a light four hours earlier than she usually did, Reborn had even been forced to put her in bed as she’d practically collapsed at the dinner table. The next morning, both her mother and Reborn were unable to wake her up until just a few minutes away from noon, and even then when she was awake, she had felt as though her limbs were being weighed down by several kilos worth of led.

Turns out, pumping your body full of artificial adrenaline day in and day out was a bad thing in more ways than one.

Not only that.

At strange moments, Tsuna had felt as though she was getting physically lighter like gravity was somewhat losing its grip on her. She always noticed it, but she didn’t want to mention it to Reborn.

She wanted to figure out if it was just a feeling or the real deal before she enlightened the man to this recent discovery of hers.

She hadn’t had to come there, she could have just gone home at the end of class as P.E was the last class of the day, but she’d decided to stay.

All the students had gathered outside on the field, stretching out their muscles before the running they were about to partake in. Yamamoto was of course one of the people more excited about what they were about to do but as Tsuna looked at him, the way he was moving his limbs looked funny, strained, and uncomfortable.

Muscle-pains maybe?

If only she could get a closer look at those muscles…

Okay…

That sounded wrong.

She had this horrible suspicion about what might be wrong with him, she seriously hoped that she was wrong but she really, really wanted to make sure, if only to calm her own mind.

When they actually started the coach’s task, Tsuna watched as her classmates run laps under the grilling rays of the sun, sitting on the bleachers as she observed them.

She really shouldn’t have done this.

She could tell that Gokudera was both confused and annoyed as to why she was sitting on the sidelines, but he hadn’t kicked up any fuss about it so she suspected that he didn’t care enough to investigate, he just kept running along with everyone else, and as it turned out, he was actually quite athletic despite having been declared to be in the Academic division in the school.

It was when she’d allowed her eyes to follow the silver-haired young man that she spotted something that caused her body to run cold.

Mochida...

Mochida Kensuke was standing on the edge of the field, his arm wrapped around the waist of one very uncomfortable looking Sasagawa Kyoko, face twisted into an expression that Tsuna was sure he believed to be flirtatious but only came across as an ugly twisted look that she was sure was just as endearing to Kyoko as it was for her.

She knew she shouldn’t be looking at him, but she couldn’t take her eyes away from him.

She just sat there, staring at the face that had haunted her dreams for the past, almost three weeks, looking like all the blood had drained from her face, leaving what was visible of it as pale as a sheet of fresh paper.

She looked sick.

Sick enough to collapse at any given second.

The cut on her neck started to tingle.

Wait… no, it wasn’t just the cut on her neck that tingled.

Her finger twitched something uncontrollable, filling up with that familiar tingling sensation that sent off warning bells inside of her head, only she couldn’t find herself able to register them. Despite the alarm, her mind was filled with mush, not allowing her to do anything but sit there, staring at the young man as the tingling grew stronger and stronger.

Tsuna’s eyes widened as the tingling of her fingertips finally registered into her mind, but by the time it did, it was no longer just that base tingling anymore, oh no, it was borderline a furious itching. If she didn’t calm down soon, she would combust.

One by one, her classmates were starting to notice her state. Some shared looks, silently questioning what was going on with their classmate.

Some had known her since middle-school and during all those years, they had never seen the girl so absolutely frightened as she did at that very moment.

Shooting up from the bleachers, Tsuna sprinted as fast as she could from the scene, heart beating wildly in her chest.

Takeshi had been on his fifth lap around the track when he saw her, and he picked up the pace to reach her.

Gokudera was slowly drawing closer to her as well.

Oblivious to the two boys approaching her, Tsuna kept her gaze locked on Mochida.

Liquid fire roared through Tsuna’s veins, mixing with her blood. If she didn’t calm down soon, everyone would know just how much of a freak she was.

No…

Not a freak, she couldn’t think of herself like that.

She wouldn’t allow herself to think of herself like that.

That didn’t stop the heat though…

* * *

“Hey, Sawada!” Takeshi called out as he approached her location. Only he didn’t get any response, not even a reaction to his presence.

It had become something expected as he ran to wave to Sawada sitting in the bleachers every time he ran past her, but this time, the girl sprinted away from her seat as though it had just been set on fire, right past him, seeming to have not even registered his presence.

And what shocked him the most, was just how fast she was.

She was barely more than a blurry streak as she bolted from the scene, and seeing her obvious rush, Takeshi felt the worry building up inside of him.

“Sawada!” he screamed after her, catching the attention of everyone close to him, and soon enough, a small group of their class was staring after the quickly disappearing figure, until she vanished behind the equipment shed.

* * *

Tsuna could practically feel the fire pulsing from underneath her skin, begging to get out and burn everything around her. The rush of the fire was making her feel, her legs, her entire body feel lighter than it had before, allowing her to run faster and without burning as much energy as she would have done had she been running alongside her classmates.

She didn’t hear Yamamoto and a few other classmates screaming after her.

She kept running and running until she reached the ball shed. There, she let her body collapse against the wall, hiding her from view of practically anything, sliding down onto her but as she breathed heavily through her mouth.

She could feel the tears prickling behind her eyes, weaving her fingers into her hair, messing it up even further as she tried to desperately force herself to calm down.

* * *

When he thought back on the moment, later on, Takeshi realized that Fujitaka had actually been the first one who moved, and yet, out of all of everyone in their small group, Takeshi was the first one who reached Sawada.

They’d found her sitting against the outer wall of the shed, her knees drawn up tightly to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs with her fingers tightly clenched into fists, her entire being notably shaking.

“Sawada?”

Tsuna looked up through the tears that had finally started to fall, right at Yamamoto hovering over her with a concerned look on his face. A few other classmates were starting to gather behind him, one of them being Gokudera, but she didn’t pay attention to any of them.

Carefully, Takeshi crouched down in front of the girl, making sure to keep a safe enough distance between the two of them.

“What’s wrong?”

Instead of answering him, Sawada buried her face into her arm, clutching her knees close to her chest, very much like she had been sitting on her bed for two weeks before Reborn arrived and brought her out of it.

When she didn’t answer, Takeshi scooted a tiny bit closer, intending to ask another question when someone beat him to it.

Her reaction seemed to anger Gokudera.

Growling lightly under his breath, the guy stalked forward, shoving his way through the whispering masses that were their other classmates as he made his way over to the girl.

He recognized that reaction. He had seen what she had been looking at before this and taking this reaction into account… it could only mean one thing really, and the realization didn’t sit well with him.

From what he knew about this girl, despite what he thought about her, she really didn’t deserve something like that.

Ignoring the baseball-idiot, he too crouched down in front of the crying girl, forcing himself to give her a calmer expression than the annoyed look he usually wore when in school.

Who could blame him really? He was already at elite university level in I.Q.

“That guy back there,” Gokudera spoke up, his voice couldn’t exactly sound gentle what with how gravelly it naturally was, but he made an attempt either way. “The one disgustingly clinging to the red-head.” Sawada’s shoulders tensed up at the description, letting anyone know that she was actually listening, Gokudera’s eyes narrowed. “Did he do something to you?”

Everyone suddenly felt themselves stiffen where they were standing.

Done something?

Just what could he mean by that?

Sawada just kept shaking, her face buried in her arms before she allowed her finger to loosen, only for them to immediately latch onto the fabric of her blazer, clutching at it as she slowly, slowly raised her head to peer up towards the transfer student.

She looked at the guy from over her arm, her eyes locking with beautiful olive-green.

‘oh...’ she thought, not taking her eyes off of him.

Intelligent and observant, the kind of guy it would be tough to keep secrets from.

He could probably decide to become a private detective and probably do pretty well.

Her look was the only thing Gokudera needed to know that he had been right in his assumption, but she wasn’t just about to reveal it to the rest of the class.

She really didn’t want anything to do with Mochida.

Instead, she glanced in the direction she had seen the object of her nightmares and one of the most lovely girls in school. Not being able to see them of course but she felt the need to do so.

“Mochida-sempai...” she shakily spoke up, her mouth still half-buried in her arms, refusing to look at anyone around her. It was hard to look at. “What is his relationship with Sasagawa-san…?” she whispered her question, almost stumbling over the words, her voice shaking something violently.

This, quite clearly, lead to her classmates reaching the wrong conclusion as to the reason behind her reaction.

Takeshi’s eyes widened.

Did Sawada have feelings for Mochida?

Takeshi awkwardly cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head with a look indicating that he was about to deliver some really, really awkward news that a friend needed to know.

Swallowing, Takeshi moved just a little bit closer to her.

“Well...” he breathed. “They’re a couple.”

Sawada’s eyes widened, her body still shaking, her fingers clutching at the lapels of her blazer hard enough to make her knuckles turn white, still not looking at anyone.

Well, he was right about it being bad news, just for the wrong reasons.

Tsuna increasingly got more and more frightened, but not for her own sake but for Kyoko’s.

The girl was too innocent, too sweet heart and mind to be with a monster like Mochida. Who knew what that guy would do to the girl? He could positively break her, make her nothing but a lifeless shell of what she had previously been…

Then again…

Tsuna’s eyebrows furrowed.

Had Kyoko looked uncomfortable back then?

She had to push that thought to the back of her mind, there were other questions that were much more important, she could get back to that later.

“How long have they been a couple?” she asks, voice still trembling, but there was something about her that appeared to be a lot steadier, despite the obvious fragile state of both her mind and emotions.

The rest of their classmates may have their minds clouded over by the belief that she was nothing but a heartbroken girl at the moment, but Gokudera wasn’t as easily fooled.

Silently, he was impressed.

The girl had been assaulted, just saw the guy that had done it, and even though she was terribly frightened by reflex at the sight of him, most of the fear was for the girl that was currently in a relationship with the guy.

This girl could become so strong emotionally if she just got over the base fear.

As Gokudera began going through options in his head of ways the girl could possibly get over her head, Takeshi was bracing himself for the news he was about to break to the crying girl.

He really wasn’t made for this kind of thing.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to.

Fujitaka was the one who answered her.

“I saw them on a date last Saturday.” The ballet dancer answered, standing not too far away from Takeshi and Gokudera. “They would have hooked up sometime last Friday.” All eyes were on him as he spoke. “I do believe it was due to Mochida’s friends being admitted into the hospital.”

Tsuna’s eyes flew open, head snapped up, her legs slipping away from her chest as her eyes locked onto Fujitaka in absolute disbelief, jamming her hands to the ground as she pushed her torso in the direction of the speaker.

The tears were already starting to dry up.

“What?” she asked, the tremor suddenly absent from her voice.

They had not been expecting that.

Tsuna’s mind was racing a million miles an hour.

Two out of three guys that had attacked her was in the hospital, gone from the school, leaving only the one that had left the most impression on her emotional state.

Why couldn’t whatever that had gotten to the muscle-heads gotten to Mochida too?

It took a while before Fujitaka found himself able to talk again, staring at the sudden lack of shaking in Sawada’s body. It was just on accident that he’d been the one who overheard the two talking last Friday and then seen them in town on Saturday. But having to relay the information to Sawada was...

He forced himself to clear his throat.

“Yeah...” he answered awkwardly, not looking at Sawada. “Apparently, Mochida was pretty torn up about what happened and Sasagawa decided to comfort him.” He shifted in a way very similar to how both Takeshi and Gokudera had seen Sawada herself do on several occasions, only for some reason, the reason behind the shifting felt different with Fujitaka than with Sawada. “I suspect Mochida asked her out around that time.” The dancer looked as though he regretted his words the second he said them.

Tsuna highly doubted that Mochida could be torn up about anything, it had all probably been an act to get the attention from Kyoko’s kind nature and thus getting close enough to woo her into going out with him.

Deep within Tsuna, a spark of anger flared up. It wasn’t strong enough to override the fear, but it was still there, and it calmed down her facial expression.

Mochida was just sick.

Sawada leaned back against the wall of the shed again, but she didn’t bring her legs up to her chest. This, Takeshi took as a sign that she had calmed down just enough to ask her what most of them probably wanted confirmation on.

Takeshi coughed, turning the attention towards him as he prepared himself to ask what he suspected a majority of the people around him was thinking.

“Sawada… do you like Mochida?” he asked.

The answer was quick, final, and without any form of hesitation.

Immediately, the girl’s head snapped towards him, her large eyes narrowed almost into a glare as her finger twisted the cloth of her blazer.

“I wouldn’t touch that guy with a mile-long pole.”

She spoke with as much malice as any of them had ever seen on her, not quite anger, no real annoyance, more like fear mixed with disgust, but it was still as much genuine dislike than they were comfortable seeing, and the majority of them had been bullying her for as long as they’ve been in school.

Apparently, she believed that the thought of her liking Mochida-sempai was preposterous enough for her to become angry, but she wasn’t emotionally in control enough to bring forth that anger so all they got was something a little stronger than a slight annoyance.

Getting down from her small burst of anger, Sawada began drawing her knees up again, pressing herself further into the wall as she started rubbing her arms.

Soon, Sawada buried her face back into her arms, but she still kept talking. “If I had seen him at his graduation instead of today… it would have been too soon.”

That shocked everyone into silence.

Finally, Takeshi and the rest of the class were starting to piece together what had actually happened.

“Sawada...” Takeshi had to keep himself from reaching out to the girl. “Was… was Mochida the one who…?” he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

And apparently, neither could Sawada.

“I can’t talk about it.” She mumbled into her arms.

“Sawada.” Fujitaka tried, but the girl wouldn’t let him.

“No.” she cut him off, glancing at him from over her arms. “I really can’t talk about it...” she insisted with a few deep breaths. “I don’t know what it’ll do to my emotions.”

Takeshi could see her nails digging into her arms, they would probably puncture her skin if he kept pressing her on the matter.

Fujitaka blinked as Sawada hid her eyes from them once again.

“Okay...” he relented.

Everyone watched as the tremors returned to Sawada’s body, and finally, Takeshi had enough of seeing her in such a state.

“Alright.” He said so suddenly that he caused a few of their classmates to jump, they watched as the athlete moved closer to Sawada, finally allowing himself to reach out and grasp her shoulders, forcing her to sit up a little straighter. “Come on.”

At the baseball-idiot’s words, Gokudera got off from the ground, looking down at the two with only a glint of hidden questions in his eyes, wondering what was going to happen now.

“What are you doing?” Sawada asked in confusion, blinking at her long-time classmate.

“I’m taking you to the infirmary,” Takeshi answered, forcing Sawada to her feet. “You need to rest.” He pulled her away from the wall, carefully moving behind her as he put his hands just below her shoulders, gently pushing her forward to force her legs into motion, leading her away from the triggering scene.

“No.” the girl suddenly said, forcing the athlete to a stop. “I need Reboyama-sensei.”

Thrown off, Takeshi stared at Sawada.

She needed a teacher?

Why would she need a teacher?

It didn’t take long before the answer came to him.

She’d told him herself just two days before.

A.A was a course for controlling your emotions, and at the moment, Sawada most definitely was not in control of said emotions.

Of course, she would be in need of that kind of a teacher right now!

“Okay...” he relented, hands tightening on her shoulders. “Okay,” he said with a much steadier voice as he began to lead the girl away again. “Let’s take you to Reboyama-sensei.” he agreed, keeping his voice as soothing as he could.

“Thank you.” Came Sawada’s surprisingly timid answer.

A little more of the strain melted from Takeshi’s face.

Really, she was such a sweet girl once you bothered to get to know her a little bit better.

* * *

The classmates remained by the shed, staring after the athlete as he led away the emotionally unstable girl, each one of her steps trembling even as the two of them disappeared into the school building. It wasn’t until the doors closed behind them that their classmates finally thought it was safe to talk again.

“You think he raped her?” Kondou Yuki asked, scratching at her forearm, the sight of her classmate in such a state bothering her more than she was letting on.

“No.” her childhood friend, Fujitaka Sasuke answered her. “No, he wouldn’t have gotten that far… I think...” he looked as though he wanted to believe his words, but he didn’t entirely believe the words himself, and that fact did not sit well with him. He allowed himself to wrap his fingers around Yuki’s hand as a form of comfort.

Gokudera rolled his eyes at their words.

“No,” he answered, tucking his hands into his pockets as the eyes of everyone around turned towards him, it was the confidence of which he spoke that one word that had done it. “Not raped.”

Within seconds, the newest addition to the class found the face of Fujitaka Sasuke hovering within inches away from his own.

“How do you know?” the young man answered, voice hovering on the edge between desperation and confusion.

Gokudera rolled his eyes once again, deliberately moving away from the pathetically frantic dancer, hands still tucked into his pockets as he kept his gaze pinned on the door their two classmates had disappeared behind.

“She’s got the scar of a cut on her neck.” He answered the dancer, not even bothering to look at him. “Assault.” He said, eyes narrowing. “But not of the sexual kind.”

Immediately, mumbles broke out through the small group he’d somehow found himself in.

“How horrible.” One very wide-eyed girl gasped, a hand over her mouth. Gokudera recognized her as one of the girls that went after the baseball enthusiast instead of him, so she was more tolerable than the next girl who spoke.

“To have experienced something like that.”

And the whispering continued, steering towards what they should do about Kyoko’s relationship with the man now that they knew what their senior had done to one of their lesser attractive classmates. If he had tried to do something so horrible to Dame-Tsuna, what could he do to someone so innocent and lovely as Sasagawa Kyoko?

The thought frightened them beyond words.

As his classmates kept on whispering, Gokudera stared after the girl and the baseball-idiot with a thoughtful look on his face.

Finally, when the two had disappeared inside the building, he turned around and walked back to the track, leaving the group of whispering nuisances.

Quietly, as the classmates chattered among themselves, Gokudera slipped away from them, returning to where the rest of the class was still running laps and it was there that he spotted that sorry excuse of a human being.

He was still there, his arm still wrapped around the redhead's waist, pulling her closer to him with that disgusting look on his face, and obviously blind to the girl’s attempts at pushing him away, to keep his offending mouth away from hers.

“Disgusting...” Gokudera found himself muttering.

* * *

Tsuna desperately attempted to keep her breathing in control as Yamamoto led her through the halls of the school. It was hard to clear her mind as the athlete’s hands clutched at her arms, keeping her upright, Fujitaka’s words ringing through her mind as their feet echoed over the walls.

Kyoko was dating Mochida?

Mochida’s friends had wound up in the hospital last Friday?

What was going on? She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it, it just couldn’t be true, it was too much.

She needed Reborn.

Soon enough, she herself pulled the two of them to a stop in front of the familiar logo, the flame logo, her family flame. She didn’t have to say anything for Yamamoto to understand that they’ve reached the right classroom, to his credit, he only briefly glanced at the logo in confusion before he threw the door open.

As luck would have it, Reborn was in the middle of a test for a male third-year when the athlete had thrown the door open.

Standing up from the desk, Reborn sent Yamamoto a rather harsh glare.

The man did not like to be interrupted.

“Yes?” he asked, his deep voice booming, the anger very present in his tone. That is... until he noticed just who it was that the athlete was brazing through the door. “Tsunako?”

Tsuna could feel the confusion and even a hint of suspicion radiate off of Yamamoto as Reborn immediately dismissed the young man that had just  straightened himself up from where he’d been hovering over the paper, telling him rather briskly to return the same time next week to retake the test before the teacher marched over to the two classmates.

The towering man gently grasped Tsuna by her way-too-hot hand, slowly removed her from her human crutch before he guided her over towards one of the desks where he helped her jump up on the table instead of sinking her into the chair.

Those chairs were too uncomfortable for what she needed to do.

Putting his hands on her shoulders, Reborn bent down just enough to lock his eyes with her, his pupils flashing once he knew she was really paying attention to what she was seeing. She knew what he meant, a silent indicator of something only known between the two of them.

She knew what he wanted her to do.

Nodding to the teacher, Tsuna allowed her eyes to fall shut.

* * *

Seeing his student slip into the familiar position he had managed to ingrain into her, Reborn could already feel her temperature cool down as her mind began to clear.

Pleased, Reborn turned around to the classmate that had brought her to him.

“What happened?” he asked, dark eyes narrowing as his voice boomed out the silent order for the young man to tell him the truth, and to do so quickly.

He watched as the young man’s back straightened under his gaze.

“She saw Mochida Kensuke-sempai during P.E.” he answered with a notably steady voice, his own eyes moving to study Tsunako, his expression drenched in open, blatant worry. “She just up and lost it.”

Mochida Kensuke… so he was the one.

His mood darkened at the realization, especially since he remembered the young man as one of the many that had come to him  to see if they could be accepted into his class. He’d been incredibly confident that he would be accepted, maintaining that belief  until well after he’d finished the test  and waiting for Reborn to “check the results”. The guy had  a smug look on his face until Reborn had the (admittedly sadistic) pleasure of informing the kid that he was NOT going to be accepted into the class, at which point he threw a fit worthy of the entitled kid he is.

Reborn lost count of how many times he heard the words “It is my RIGHT” coming out of that mouth.

The kid has never had to work for anything in his life and he’s saying he’s entitled to be accepted into a course that teaches the control of an ability triggered and fueled by  all-encompassing determination and willpower?

Yeah, that’s not happening.

And now he finds out that that over-confident, entitled brat was the one who tried to disfigure and maybe even cripple his student…

He had to restrain himself from leaving the room.

Entitled brats do not vanish mysteriously unless he can get away with it, and unfortunately,  Mochida Kensuke had too much presence within the school building.

Slowly, the teacher walked to his desk, his hand fiddling with his obsidian-type gem.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” He finally said, in turn, surprising young Yamamoto Takeshi.

“You know what happened to her?” the young athlete asked, stepping up closer to the desk.

”Not entirely.” Lucian answered, sitting down on his chair. “I was the one that found her that day though.” He threw a glance at his students, taking in the tremors that were still stubbornly raking through her tiny frame. “She’s pretty much entirely healed up physically, but her emotions are still somewhat frayed.”

Realization flashed through the young man’s eyes.

“That’s why you insisted on her taking your course.” He breathed.

Reborn’s interest was officially peaked.

Tsunako had told this young man their story. Reborn knew Tsunako enough to know that she only really talked to people she felt deserved to hear her opinion, and so for her to be talking to this young man...

”Yes.” Reborn answered, studying the young man.

Athletic division, that much was obvious, with clear care for his student which could only be considered good news what with Tsunako’s… less than ideal social standing. His mouth twitched. “You should return to class,” he said, getting back up from the chair.

For a long moment, the young man looked over Tsunako’s trembling frame before finally, he let out a long sigh of resignation.

“Fine.” he relented, turning around towards the door, only to pause with his hand hovering over the handle, throwing yet another glance towards the meditating girl. “She’ll be fine, right?”

This finally managed to pull Reborn’s smirk to the surface.

”How long have you shared a class with her?” he asked, shocking the young man.

”Basically since preschool.” he answered.

Reborn had to keep himself from chuckling.

”Then what do you think?”

It didn’t take long before the worry washed off of the young athlete’s face.

”She’ll be fine.” He answered, voice steady with a small smile spreading over his mouth.

”Exactly.”


End file.
